230 Indians seek asylum in Cyprus: EU

Brussels, May 9 (IANS) Two hundred and thirty Indians were among the 240,000 people who applied for asylum in the European Union last year, the statistical office of the 27-member grouping has said in its latest report.

All of the Indian asylum seekers were registered in Cyprus, according to the Eurostat figures released Friday.

Among the Asian nationals, 7,760 Pakistani nationals have requested for asylum and majority of them (6,915) have registered their applications in Greece, the report said.

A total of 425 people from Sri Lanka and 175 from Bangladesh have also requested for asylum last year, EuAsiaNews reported.

The highest number of applicants were from Iraq (29,000 or 12 percent of the total), Russia (21,100 or 9 percent), Somalia (14,300 or 6 percent), Serbia (13,600 or 6 percent) and Afghanistan (12,600 or 5 percent).

Among the EU nations, France received the highest number of applicants (41,800) followed by Britain with 30,500 applicants, the report said.

Last year, EU granted asylum to 193,690 people from around the world while it granted refugee status to 24,425 applicants.