EU sees drop in asylum seekers

The number of people seeking asylum in the EU has dropped by 22 percent in 2003 from the previous year, but considerable increases have occurred in the new EU states.\n \nA report published on Tuesday by the UN refugee agency UNHCR says that the 288,000 seeking asylum in 2003 is the lowest level since 1997 and is well under half the total of asylum seekers in 1992 during the war in the Balkans.

The figures also show a plunge in the annual number of asylum seekers arriving in 36 industri...