A Kurdish Syrian refugee waits for transport during a sand storm on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
GENEVA (Reuters) - Wars in Syria and Iraq, and instability in other hotspots are driving ever more people to seek asylum in wealthy nations, with requests on track to hit a 20-year high in 2014, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
Some 330,700 people sought refugee status in 44 industrialised countries in the first half of the year, an almost 24 per cent rise on the same period in 2013, it said.
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