According to a report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a five-year downward trend in the overall number of people seeking asylum in industrialized countries experienced a reversal last year. Nearly half of asylum seekers from around the world found home in the European Union last year, with the majority of them coming from Iraq. Iraqis top the list of applicants for the second year in a row, accounting for over 10 percent of the total 45,200 applications in 2007.
