Asylum seeker figures in Luxembourg

Most refugees who sought asylum in Luxembourg between January 1 and April 15 this year come from Syria, with 155 Syrians filing an application.

This is followed by 107 requests for asylum by Serbians during the same period.

52 Syrian nationals have been integrated into the European relocation programme in Luxembourg.

Minister of foreign affairs Jean Asselborn officially confirmed the figures on Thursday.

‘Dublin case’

But Serbians — like many other people from the Balkans — have very little chance of obtaining refugee status in Luxembourg. A total of 92% of Serbian asylum seekers are considered to be a so-called “Dublin case” – people who have already applied for asylum in another EU country but the application was rejected or is still in process.

68% of all asylum applications received by the immigration ministry between January 1 and April 15 were a “Dublin case”.

148 people have already been sent to the country where the first request for asylum was made – for most, this is Germany or the Netherlands.

In 404 cases the ministry reached an agreement with the countries of the initial asylum request and 120 people voluntarily left Luxembourg.

276 refugees reunited with family

Asselborn also spoke of family reunifications and between January 1, 2015, and March 31, 276 people – mainly of Syrian origin – benefited from this, including spouses and children.

“Family members go to the Luxembourg embassy in Ankara or the Belgian embassy in Beirut to get a visa and can then go to Luxembourg,” Asselborn explained.

For safety reasons a full security check is carried out by the Intelligence Services.

The minister of foreign affairs also spoke of the specific situation of Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans. Syrians are generally recognised as refugees across the EU but the situation is different for Iraqis. They can only be granted refugee status after “careful consideration”.

Since January 1, 2015, 722 Iraqi nationals have sought asylum. 125 have been granted asylum and 94 applications have been rejected. Nobody has been sent back to Iraq. The minister of foreign affairs hopes all Iraqi nationals’ files will have been dealt with by the autumn.