EU: The number of asylum-seekers arriving in Europe has fallen sharply for the third successive year, dropping to 1980s levels, according to a report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Applications for political asylum in Ireland fell by 40 per cent between 2003 and 2004, a sharper fall than the EU average.
The number of asylum applications per head of population in Ireland is, however, the fifth-highest in the EU.
Raymond Hall, director of the UNHCR's Europe Bureau, said that politicians should respond to the drop in asylum applications by providing better conditions for refugees.
"This really should reduce the pressure by politicians, media and the public to make asylum systems more and more restrictive to the point where many genuine refugees have enormous difficulty getting access to Europe, or getting recognised once they are there. In most industrialised countries, it should simply not be possible to claim there is a huge asylum crisis any more," he said.
Some 4,770 people sought political asylum in Ireland during 2004, compared to 7,900 in 2003 and 11,630 in 2002. The largest single group seeking asylum in Ireland during 2004 were Nigerians, numbering 1,776.
Germany saw fewer asylum-seekers last year than in any year since 1984 and the Netherlands had its lowest number of asylum seekers since 1988. A few EU countries - Poland, Slovakia, Finland Cyprus and Malta - received more asylum-seekers last year than ever before but most experienced sharp falls.
France is the most popular EU destination for refugees, followed by Britain and Germany.
In per capita terms, Cyprus received most asylum seekers in 2004, followed by Austria, Sweden, Luxembourg and Ireland.
"We need to watch what is happening in the new member states very carefully. Cyprus, the Slovak Republic and Malta are all countries with young asylum systems that are struggling to cope," Mr Hall said.