Where UNHCR-RSD happens
Updated 20 September 2011, with 2010 data
In recent years, the number of asylum-seekers applying to UNHCR for refugee status determination has varied wildly. Globally in 2010, 96,800 people applied to UNHCR offices for RSD.
There are roughly speaking 50 to 60 UNHCR offices that decide some RSD cases, though not all report statistics every year. Nearly all of these offices are in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. But while UNHCR RSD takes place in dozens of countries, most of UNHCR’s RSD cases are concentrated in a much small number of offices.
The fifteen largest UNHCR RSD offices accounted for 94 percent of all of the agency’s RSD applications in 2010. UNHCR’s office in Malaysia, the largest UNHCR RSD operation, received 25,632 applications. By contrast, UNHCR received one (1) RSD application in Haiti.
The concentration of RSD activity in these offices often impacts efforts to improve UNHCR’s RSD procedures. UNHCR is able to impact a large percentage of the asylum-seekers impacted by its RSD procedures by changing policies in just a few offices. But at the same time, offices that rarely do RSD may be left behind by reforms made elsewhere.
UNHCR’s RSD Operations (by number of applications, 2010)
| State | Applications | |
| 1 | Malaysia | 25,632 |
| 2 | Kenya | 19,317 |
| 3 | Turkey | 9,226 |
| 4 | India | 4,026 |
| 5 | Indonesia | 3,905 |
| 6 | Yemen | 3,743 |
| 7 | Cameroon | 3,326 |
| 8 | Syria | 3,219 |
| 9 | Jordan | 2,869 |
| 10 | Egypt | 2,605 |
| 11 | Lebanon | 1,774 |
| 12 | Libya | 1,699 |
| 13 | Thailand | 1,205 |
| 14 | Pakistan | 943 |
| 15 | Morocco | 906 |
| 16 | Iraq | 846 |
| 17 | Kazakhstan | 544 |
| 18 | Hong Kong | 457 |
| 19 | UAE | 438 |
| 20 | Algeria | 432 |
| 21 | Kuwait | 360 |
| 22 | Kyrgyzstan | 297 |
| 23 | DRC | 293 |
| 24 | Ukraine | 277 |
| 25 | Somalia | 246 |
| 26 | Azerbaijan | 192 |
| 27 | Senegal | 188 |
| 28 | Sudan | 182 |
| 29 | China | 164 |
| 30 | Bahrain | 136 |
| 31 | Sri Lanka | 100 |
| 32 | Iran | 67 |
| 33 | Oman | 53 |
| 34 | Tunisia | 53 |
| 35 | Tajikistan | 51 |
| 36 | Nepal | 42 |
| 37 | Togo | 42 |
| 38 | Afghanistan | 39 |
| 39 | Qatar | 37 |
| 40 | Cyprus | 36 |
| 41 | Saudi Arabia | 26 |
| 42 | Cuba | 23 |
| 43 | Trinidad & Tobago | 22 |
| 44 | Bangladesh | 18 |
| 45 | Belarus | 16 |
| 46 | Curacao | 9 |
| 47 | Suriname | 7 |
| 48 | Armenia | 4 |
| 49 | Cambodia | 3 |
| 50 | Grenada | 3 |
| 51 | Saint Lucia | 3 |
| 52 | St Lucia and St Vincent & the Genadines | 3 |
| 53 | Sint Maarten | 3 |
| 54 | Tonga | 3 |
| 55 | Haiti | 1 |
| 56 | Palau | 1 |
| 57 | Antigua and Barbuda | 0 |
| 58 | Dominica | 0 |
| 59 | Mongolia | 0 |
