UNHCR released statistics on the number of asylum applications in 2013 in 44 industrialized countries, showing an increase by 28 per cent compared to 2012. Syria is now the top country of origin.

The featured topics on Afghanistan (security in Kabul), Nigeria (Boko Haram), the Russian Federation (security in Dagestan) and Somalia (al-Shabaab) have been updated.

The US Department of State released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, covering 2013.

The European Journalism Center released a handbook on the verification of digital content, which is freely available online. While it is primarily targeted at journalists and aid responders, it provides valuable advice for anyone researching user-generated content / social media.

Freedom House published its annual report, “Freedom in the World 2014″. Some country chapters are already available online.

Human Rights Watch published its annual World Report, covering events in 2013.

The featured topics on Afghanistan (security in Kabul), Nigeria (Boko Haram), the Russian Federation (security in Dagestan) and Somalia (al-Shabaab) have been updated.

The Irish Refugee Council is organising a conference on the Common European Asylum System on 17 & 18 January in Dublin.

The featured topics on Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Somalia have been updated.

Update 2018: With the relaunch of our system, there is no longer a daily mainenance period.

ecoi.net introduces scheduled maintenance period: each day at 05:15 CET the ecoi.net database will be deactivated. The downtimes will range from a couple of minutes to about an hour. This blog will remain usable during the maintenance periods.