Daily Times

The United States — facing massive controversy over immigration — received more asylum requests than any other developed nation in 2017, overtaking Germany, the OECD said in a report published Wednesday.

Asylum requests went up 26 percent in the US to 330,000 last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in its annual International Migration Outlook.

Germany, which had topped the ranking since 2013, meanwhile saw a 73 percent drop in applications to 198,000 as the massive influx to Europe across the Mediterranean has slowed, the report said.

The report was released as President Donald Trump faces a cacophony of criticism over his administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents on the US-Mexico border.

“The refugee crisis has heightened concerns in the public opinion about the potential benefits of migration,” the OECD’s labour director Stefano Scarpetta wrote in the report. If countries want to work together better on migration and protect refugees, “these concerns must be addressed.”

Published in Daily Times, June 21^st 2018.