Asylum seekers are being thrown out of some countries because of a rise in xenophobia and political campaigns that use foreigners as scapegoats, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) chief said.

Asylum and immigration are sensitive issues in many countries, such as Italy and Greece, which say they cannot cope with hundreds of thousands of people arriving as potential illegal migrants, often on rickety boats from Africa.

"We are witnessing, unfortunately, the emergence of xenophobic feelings and populist forces that make campaigns against foreigners and use foreigners as a scapegoat for (the) problems of a country in political campaigns," Antonio Guterres told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday.

"The recent examples of people being sent back against their will, like in Cambodia or the push back of Eritreans from Italy are good examples of an asylum space that is narrowing and we need to fight to keep asylum open for those that are in need of protection."

The number of people seeking asylum in the West remained stable last year, shattering the myth that there is a flood of people trying to reach rich countries, UNCHR said in late March.

Half of the world's 10.5 million refugees are living in urban centres, driving up living costs and increasing the risk of tension with local populations, according to the UN body.

Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, said an "arch of crises" including Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Palestinians, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Chad represented two thirds of the world's refugee population.

In a separate statement, a UNHCR spokeswoman praised Tanzania's naturalisation of 162,000 refugees. Most of them - Hutus who fled ethnic violence in Burundi - were no longer confined to refugee camps and were already largely integrated into Tanzania's society and economy, she said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who was in the East African country for the announcement, described Tanzania's move as a "historic action" and called on donor countries to respond by helping Tanzania integrate its new citizens.

The naturalisation leaves Tanzania with some 97,000 refugees in camps and settlements, mostly from Burundi or DR Congo, the UNHCR spokeswoman said.

(Source: Reuters)