Asylum. A load of fuss about nothing. “The number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe has fallen to levels last seen in the late 1980s” – in the UK, asylum applications have fallen by 61% in the last two years alone.

As for all the nonsense spouted by the likes of Robert Kilroy-Silk about Britain taking “only our fair share” and all the suggestions that we take far more than our EU partners – France is actually the world’s top recipient of asylum-seekers, with 61,600 last year. The UK, in contrast, while being in third place (behind the US and just ahead of Germany) received just 40,200 asylum requests in 2004 (down from 103,080 in 2002) – or 0.7 asylum seekers per 1,000 inhabitants.

Yep, we’re simply FLOODED with the buggers, aren’t we?

The United Nations Refugee Agency press release has more, or download a pdf of the report itself, Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2004.

Some other blog views: Diderot’s Lounge, The Pseudo Magazine, and Big Dog’s Weblog.