Most of the asylum seekers to Luxembourg are so-called Dublin cases, meaning they have already applied for asylum in another EU country which is part of the Dublin agreement.Pictured: Jean Asselborn, immigration and foreign affairs minister, in 2013 Christophe Olinger

Most of the asylum seekers to Luxembourg are so-called Dublin cases, meaning they have already applied for asylum in another EU country which is part of the Dublin agreement.Pictured: Jean Asselborn, immigration and foreign affairs minister, in 2013 Christophe Olinger

In total, 808 people have applied for asylum between 1 January and 15 April.

In the past three and a half months, 1,098 decisions have been reached on asylum applications by the immigration ministry--237 were positive and 8 people received the status of subsidiary protection.

107 were refused through the normal procedure; 101 through the fast track procedure (when the asylum seeker is from a “safe” country). Luxembourg recognises Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Senegal as safe countries.

Syrians, Serbs the biggest groups

With 155 asylum applications, Syrians constitute the biggest group; but of those 155, 52 came through the relocation programme to Luxembourg and are recognised refugees.

Apart from Syrians, Serbs are the second biggest group--however, they have almost no chance being recognised as refugees, just like citizens of other Balkan states. Furthermore, 92% of these Serbs are so-called Dublin asylum seekers--this means that they have already applied for asylum in another EU member state and have been either rejected or their application is still being processed.

Moroccans (80), Algerians (67) and Albanians (54) followed the Serbs. Except for Albanians (37%), the vast majority of Serbs, Moroccans and Algerians had already been registered by Eurodac, the EU fingerprint database.

639 transfers are being organised with other member states, for 404 of which an agreement has been found. So far this year, 148 people have been transferred, and a further 24 will be transferred by the end of this month.

120 people, whose applications failed, left voluntarily; 52 were forced to leave.

Iraqi asylum applicants

Asselborn did not reveal how many Iraqis have applied for asylum since 1 January. However, figures show that between 1 January 2015 and 31 March 2017, 722 Iraqis filed their asylum applications, of which only 125 were accepted.

94 were rejected, 61 were Dublin cases; 76 applications had been “explicitly” withdrawn (meaning that the applicant went personally to the immigration ministry to withdraw their application before the decision was taken) and 18 were “implicitly withdrawn” (meaning that the applicant did not turn up at the immigration ministry anymore).