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STATISTICS ON ASYLUM SEEKERS

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In  2008 51 persons requested asylum in Latvia. (In 2007 in total 34 persons requested asylum in Latvia).

In 2008 one person was granted the alternative status, 2 persons - refugee status, in 21 cases the negative decisions were made.

Since 1998, when the asylum procedure started 254 persons applied for the asylum. In the first years most of the applicants for the granting of the refugee status were from the Asian countries, but during the last years they are primarily coming form the former USSR republics (for example from Russia, Belarus).

In total 17 persons were granted the refugee status in the Republic of Latvia, among them 12 adults and 5 minors. In 2004 one person lost the refugee status because he received the citizenship of the Republic of Latvia by means of the naturalisation procedure.

During the period from 2002 to 2008 the alternative status was granted to 21 persons- 4 from Belarus (3 adults, 1 child); 7 –from Russia (4 adults, 3 children); 7 no Somalia (5 adults, 2 children). In 2004 5 persons lost the alternative status, because they returned to their country of residence.

Statistical data on the application of the Dublin Regulation in Latvia

After the accession of Latvia to the European Union on May 1, 2004, Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national (referred further as the Dublin Regulation) is binding for Latvia.

The main goal of Dublin Regulation is to ensure that the application for asylum is being examined only in one of the EU Member States, therefore preventing the cases, when the asylum seeker and/or his/her family members apply for asylum in several EU Member States at the same time, therefore misusing the asylum procedure. Dublin Regulation lays down the criteria, by using which the Member State may determining whether another EU Member State is responsible for examining the application for asylum in question.

In 2008 Latvia received 52 requests from Germany (4), Lithuania (7), Slovakia (3), Sweden (25),Estonia (1), Norway (6), Denmark (1), Austria (1) asking to evaluate the responsibility of Latvia for the for examining these applications for asylum. In 40 cases Latvia agreed to undertake the responsibility for the examination of the asylum applications and it rejected 12 such requests. In the above-mentioned periods Latvia sent 1 request to undertake the responsibility for the examination of the asylum application.

*http://www.unhcr.ch