According to the UNHCR, 55,700 Albanians from Kosovo and southern Serbia last year filed a request for asylum.
An official of the UNHCR in Geneva William Spindler told the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) that the organization does not recognize Kosovo emigrants as “refugees”. Last year the number of asylum requests in the 44 most developed countries of the world increased by 45 %, and reached the highest level in the last 22 years, i.e. 866,000 requests.
The increased number of requests for asylum is mostly submitted by Syrians who are on first place with 150,000 applications, which is almost three times more than in 2013. On second place are asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan, about 68,700. Albanians from Kosovo and municipalities in southern Serbia – Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja are in the third place with 55,700 requests.
Germany in 2014 was ranked as the first country in the number of claims with 173,000, followed by the United States with 121,200, while Turkey is third with 87,800 requests of refugees which come mainly from Iraq.
