IN 2014 asylum applications to rich countries reached their highest level for over 20 years, according to data from the UNHCR, t

he UN's refugee agency

. Around 866,000 applications were lodged, a 45% increase on the previous year. Two-thirds of those were in the European Union. Southern Europe saw a particularly sharp rise, with applications to Italy doubling to 157,000, as more refugees risked crossing the Mediterranean. The last time asylum-seeker applications in the rich world reached this level was the start of the Bosnia Herzegovina conflict in 1992. The causes are unsurprising. Jihadists in Syria and Iraq have displaced millions (but only a small share of those fleeing get as far as Europe). Human-rights abuses in Eritrea sends a streams of refugees through Sudan to Libya and then across the sea to Europe. Disillusion and economic stagnation in the Balkans have sent thousands north. Conflict elsewhere added to the surge, the number of Ukrainians seeking asylum jumped from 1,400 in 2013 to 15,700 in 2014.

Those who manage to lodge applications in rich countries are the fortunate minority. In 2013 over 50m people were involuntarily displaced worldwide, of which 17m were refugees and only 1.2m asylum seekers. When the worldwide numbers for 2014 are totted up, they are likely to be even higher.