Political asylum

French Minister: Paris May Offer Asylum to Whistleblowers Snowden, Assange

It is possible that France may decide to offer asylum to whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said on Thursday.

Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor, has remained in Russia after revealing the US government’s widespread surveillance programs.

Political asylum

Russia had world’s highest number of asylum applications in 2014 – UN

In 2014 Russia received the world’s largest number of applications from asylum seekers fleeing repression or war in their home countries, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in its annual report.

The report states that about 275,000 foreigners applied for political asylum in 2014, claiming that they suffer from wars or unfounded persecution at home. Seven thousand of these were applications for refugee status and almost 268,000 were requests for temporary asylum.