OECD countries register slowing migration flows in 2017

Source: Xinhua| 2018-06-21 00:05:25|Editor: yan
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PARIS, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of people who fled war and poverty and sought refuge in OECD member countries decreased in 2017 due to a decline in asylum applications over the period compared to 2016 data, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Wednesday.

With around 5 million new permanent migrants recorded last year, migration flows dropped for the first time since 2011, from 5.3 million a year earlier.

"This trend is mainly due to a significant decrease in humanitarian migration as a result of the decline in new asylum applications, with 1.2 million applications in 2017 compared to 1.6 million in 2016," the Paris-based organization said.

In its 2018 International Migration Outlook, the OECD said asylum applications to European countries were halved due to "the large decline in applications in Germany after the very high figure recorded in 2016, which partly reflected delayed registrations from 2015."

However, applications to Canada were more than doubled and those to Australia rose by 29 percent.

The OECD member countries currently host around 6.4 million refugees, more than half of whom are in Turkey. The top three countries from which asylum seekers have come are Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

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