Asylum seekers to industrialised countries up 20 per cent Overall, there were more than 440,000 claims in 2011 compared to around 370,00 the previous year, including 300,000 in Europe. Tarek Abou Chabake, from the UN Human Rights Agency, which produced the figures, said last year's Arab spring which led to unrest across the Middle East and parts of Africa had led to a rise in applications from those regions. Basically for those four countries of origin, the numbers were a record high for 2011 among the industrialised countries. The highest number of applications overall came from Afghanistan, followed by China, Iraq and Serbia. The Nordic countries and Australasia were the only regions of the industrialised world which saw a decline in the number of asylum-seekers. Asia, with 45 per cent, was the region of origin for the highest amount of refugees, followed by Africa, Europe and the Americas. The survey did not cover non-industrialised nations - globally, South Africa is thought to have experienced the most asylum claims last year with 107,000, including many from Zimbabwe.