In the year 2002, Greece ranked ninth among all the European Union member states in the number of Iraqis with refugee status, as the largest group of asylum applicants throughout the past five years were Iraqis. From the year 1997 to 2001, Greece had the sixth highest total of Iraqi applications in EU countries, and continuing from 2000 to 2002, applications submitted by Iraqis doubled, culminating in 45% of all applications in 2002 in Greece.[1][7] The number was put at 2,300 asylum applicants.[1]