South Africa continued to receive asylum applications during 2016 from people coming from farther away, including 2,800 individuals from Bangladesh, says a new global report.

The country also received asylum applications from people coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5,300), Ethiopia (4,800, Nigeria (3,300), and Somalia (1,600).

South Africa was a recipient of a large number of new individual asylum claims, receiving 35,400 in 2016, according to a report published on Monday by UNHCR ahead of the World Refugee Day that falls on June 20.

While claims from people from Zimbabwe remained the most numerous (8,000), this was less than half the number received the previous year (17,800) and substantially fewer than in 2009 (149,500).

Greece saw more than a fourfold increase in new individual asylum claims, from 11,400 in 2015 to 49,800.

More than half of these claims were from Syrians (26,600), compared with 3,300 in 2015. Similarly, asylum claims from Iraqis increased from 580 in 2015 to 4,800. Asylum claims also were received from Pakistanis (4,400), Afghans (4,300), Albanians (1,300), Iranians (1,100), and Bangladeshis (1,100).

A total of 39,900 new individual asylum claims were received in Austria in 2016, less than half the number received in 2015 (85,800) although still higher than in 2014 (28,100).

Afghans accounted for most claims (11,500) but this was half the number received in 2015 (25,200).

The number of applications by Syrians declined even more in 2016, with 8,600 claims compared with 24,400 in 2015.

The decline in applications from Iraqis was also notable, dropping from 13,300 in 2015 to 2,700.

Pakistanis submitted 2,400 claims, followed by Iranians (2,400) and Nigerians (1,600).

Following declines in claims received in Hungary, the Russian Federation, South Africa, and Sweden compared with the past few years, the United Kingdom became the eighth-largest recipient of new individual asylum claims.

That was despite the fact that the United Kingdom had slightly fewer claims in 2016 (38,500) than in 2015 (38,900).

The largest number of claims was received from Iranians (4,800) followed by nationals from Pakistan (3,700), Iraq (3,700), Afghanistan (3,100), and Bangladesh (2,200).

Eritreans submitted some 1,300 asylum claims in the United Kingdom in 2016, compared with 3,800 in 2015.