Serbia is ranked fifth when it comes to the number of asylum seekers in the countries of the European Union last year, according to the European Commission's annual report on immigration and asylum for 2012.

The report, presented by European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom on Friday, shows that about 14,000 Serbian citizens sought asylum in some of the EU countries in 2011.

The most important countries of citizenship of asylum seekers were Afghanistan, with about 28 thousand requests, the Russian Federation, with over 18 thousand, Pakistan, close to 16 thousand, and Iraq, with more that 15 thousand seekers.

The report, based on figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, also says that around 20.2 million of the world's migrants are third-country nationals residing in the EU.