Britain has replaced France as the top destination for asylum-seekers among all 27 EU countries, according to figures released in Brussels yesterday.

Among the 27,850 applications received in 2006, asylum-seekers from Eritrea were the largest group, with 2,725 applying to stay in Britain, followed by 2,675 from Iran and 2,650 from Afghanistan.

Overall, numbers of refugees to the EU have fallen sharply as a result of greater stability in the Balkans.

Britain received 3,000 fewer applications than the previous year, dramatically lower than the peak in 2002 of 103,080 requests.

After Britain, the most requests were received by France (26,300), Sweden (24,300) and Germany (21,000). The least popular destinations were the Baltic states, with Estonia receiving five formal applications and Latvia ten.

The EU received 192,300 asylum applications in 2006, some 15 per cent fewer than in 2005 and half of the total in 2001, according to Eurostat, the EU’s data monitoring service.

Iraq overtook Russia to become the biggest source of refugees heading to the EU. Nearly 20,000 Iraqis claimed asylum in EU countries last year, ahead of nearly 13,000 from Russia, and they were the biggest single nationality applying for refuge in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Romania.

The impact of Iraqis fleeing their country was felt most in Sweden, where the country’s welcoming asylum policy led to applications from 8,950 Iraqis, by far the highest number from any group in any EU country.

In contrast to Britain, where only around one in six Iraqis is given leave to remain, in Sweden up to nine out of ten have been allowed to stay.

Iraqis made up one in ten of all asylum-seekers arriving in Europe and the tide of refugees shows no sign of abating, with the United Nations saying that 19,800 requested asylum in 36 Western countries in the first half of 2007, twice as many as last year.

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