GENEVA, Sept 21: Some 19,800 Iraqis fleeing violence and persecution applied for asylum in the West in the first half of 2007, accounting for one of every seven claims filed during the period, the United Nations said on Friday.

The number of Iraqis seeking asylum in 36 industrialised countries rose 45 per cent over the previous six months, and is already approaching last year’s total of 22,200.

“Iraqis were the number one nationality applying for asylum in industrialised countries in the first half of the year,” Ron Redmond, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.

“If this trend is maintained, by the end of the year the number of Iraqi asylum seekers might reach over 40,000, the highest number since 2002,” he said.

The figure reflected massive upheaval within Iraq, where an intensifying sectarian divide was fuelling violence “without a political solution in sight”, the Geneva-based agency said in its latest report.

Almost half of the 19,800 Iraqi applications, some 9,300, were submitted in Sweden. “The large Iraqi community in that country and its strong social network might account for the high number of Iraqis going there,” Redmond said.—Reuters