Indians Among Top Asylum Seekers in the World: International Migration Outlook 2017 Report

• The International Migration Outlook 2017 report concludes that asylum seekers from India are among the highest in the world
• New Zealand has been the most preferred nation for asylum seekers from India
• Resettlement and students overstaying their visas are the biggest reasons to this problem

New Delhi, July 20, 2017: The International Migration Outlook 2017 report states that Indians are among the highest asylum seekers in the world.

According to the report, New Zealand has been the most preferred destination for asylum seekers. Nationals of India, China and Fiji were the highest asylum seekers in New Zealand between 2012-2016. In the year 2015-2016, a total of 340 people sought asylum in New Zealand, out of which the highest was from India (11%) followed by China (9%).

Other countries like Latvia, Japan, Slovakia, Finland, Australia, UK and the US also receive a high number of asylum seekers from India.

Latvia is a small country in Europe with only 2 million population. Here too, Indians are the highest number of asylum seekers. In 2015-2016, out of 6,200 asylum requests, Indians were the highest at 18%.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has observed that Indians have sought asylum in 40 countries over the course of several years now. The two main factors for this is the fact that many students overstay their education visas and others opt for resettlement. Many people also choose to enter the high wage markets in abroad.

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Jonathan Chaloff, International Migration Division's policy analyst, said to TOI that students who have overstayed their visa have high chances of acceptance when they apply for asylum.

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Loyola College's Head of Department, Social Work, Gladstone Xavier said about the asylum seekers, "They have to prove a threat to life because of race, religion, political belief, political affiliations or gender. If not, the Refugee Status Branch will turn down the request or keep the decision pending." Mr. Xavier has worked with Sri Lankan Refugees in India.

– Prepared by Saksham Narula of NewsGram. Twitter @Saksham2394