December 3, 2003 - 21:41 AMT
3.8 THOUSAND ARMENIAN CITIZENS SOUGHT POLITICAL ASYLUM IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES WITHIN THIS YEAR
Within the 9 months of the current year 3.8 thousand Armenian citizens have sought political asylum in developed countries, reported "Washington ProFile" referring to the data of the UN high commissioner for refugees. According to the source, Armenia is the 22-nd on the number of citizens, who have addressed other countries to get political asylum. Russia, 23.7 thousand citizens of which want to live in another country, is at the top of the list. It is followed by Iraq (21.6 thousand), Serbia and Montenegro (18.4 thousand), as well as Turkey, China, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, India and Pakistan. Georgia is the 14-th in the list (5.36 thousand), and Azerbaijan is the 33-rd (2.6 thousand). The requests to be granted asylum were most commonly addressed to the US and UK.