Residents of Chechnya are most frequent refuge applicants in Belgium

Thirteen percent of total applicants for political asylum in Belgium are residents of Chechnya.

This is the result of the monitoring conducted by the authorities of Belgium who had decided to find out citizens of what countries are most frequent applicants for asylum, the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports with reference to the RIA "Novosti".

Apart from natives of Chechnya, most applications for granting refuge in Belgium have been filed by citizens of Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The "Caucasian Knot" informed earlier that since December 23 the number of applicants for a refuge from Chechnya in France has sharply exceeded the usual number. As a result, the refugees from Chechnya found themselves in awfully hard living conditions.

We remind you that the number of citizens of Russia seeking shelter in Poland has also went up, and mainly due to those who live in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Only from July to November 2007, a total of 3555 applications were filed on granting refuge in Poland.

According to embassies of European countries in Russia, as of today, about 150,000 Chechnya natives live in the countries of Europe. According to approximate data, Austria counts about 15,000 refugees from Chechnya. According to a source in the Migration Department of Norway, among many issues considered to be problematic by refugees from Chechnya, is the safety issue.