Iraqis Flee to Europe

Iraqis top the list of 40 nationalities seeking asylum in Europe, with more than 8,100 applicants during the first six months of 2006 -- a 50-percent increase compared with the same period a year ago.

Refugees are coming to Europe in increasing numbers because of the "deteriorating situation in Iraq which is on the brink of a civil war," Astrid Van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the AFP news agency.

Countries near Iraq have even higher numbers of refugees. There were more than 700,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, at least 600,000 in Syria and 100,000 in Egypt, according to the UNHCR.

Sweden most popular destination

Sweden remains the top European destination because of its generous refugee policies and because many Iraqis are already there, having emigrated there in the 1990s.

Approximately 79,200 Iraqis now call Sweden home, making them the second-largest immigrant group after Finns. Iraqi asylum seekers are of all religious and ethnic backgrounds, Van Genderen Stort said.

"Sweden has the reputation of being a humane country, a safe and democratic country that respects human rights," said Hikmet Hussain, the head of the Iraqi Federation in Sweden.

In Sweden, refugees can easily get residency permits. Some 80 to 90 percent of requests have been approved since January, AFP reported.

Rest of Europe less welcoming

While most European countries don't deport Iraqis, many let them stay but deny them residency permits. In Switzerland, the primarily Iraqi Kurdish refugees are offered accommodation in a refugee center and are allowed to stay temporarily, said Dominique Boillat, a spokeswoman for the Swiss immigration authority.

"They know we won't send them back," Boillat said.

In Germany, where 1,918 Iraqis sought asylum in the first 11 months of 2006, only 1 to 2 percent are accepted, according to the government.

In Denmark, a staunch ally of the United States in the Iraq war, 80 percent of the 650 Iraqi asylum seekers are in the process of being deported.

Krister Isaksson, an analyst at the Swedish Migration Board, said the numbers of Iraqis in some European countries might be higher. But many choose to remain illegal because they believe their asylum request will be denied.

"This is how Sweden is different," Isaksson said. "In Sweden, they opt to seek asylum because they are likely to get permission to stay."

Isaksson said she doesn't expect the number of Iraqi asylum seekers to decrease in the near future.