The European Union took in almost 17 per cent more asylum seekers in 2013 than it did a year earlier, with most migrants stemming from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, dpa cited new data released on Thursday as showing. The EU is a common destination for people fleeing war and conflict, such as the three-year crisis in Syria. But immigration is a sensitive issue in recession-weary Europe, with migrants often seen to be competing for limited jobs and welfare benefits. The bloc's 28 countries last year granted asylum to a total of 135,700 people who sought protection as refugees or for humanitarian reasons, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, which released the new data to coincide with World Refugee Day. The number is the highest seen since Eurostat started issuing EU data in 2005, a spokesman said.
