In conjunction with the 'Justice and Home Affairs' Council meeting being convened in Luxembourg today, the lëtzebuergerflüchtlingsrot (LFR) has been distributing flyers to provide the public with a better insight into the current refugee crisis.
The figures shown on the flyer aim to show a different reality to contradict the perception that Europe is currently being inundated with refugees, showing that many more asylum seekers have sought refuge in other countries than in Europe, and have been received by far less economically-secure countries. For example, the five countries who received the most refugees in 2014 are Turkey, with 1.6 million; Pakistan with 1.5 million; Lebanon with 1.2 million; Iran with 1 million; and Ethiopia with 0.7 million. Indeed, Europe ranks third for refugee reception numbers in 2014 at 23%, behind both Africa and Asia and the Pacific at 26% each.
With regards to Luxembourg itself, the flyer also stated that the 1,212 asylum applications received until the end of September 2015 indicates that even if influx levels remained the same through October, November and December of 374 monthly, these numbers would still be far from those received at the end of the 1990s during the Balkan wars.
According to a study by the United Nations Refugee Agency, of a population of 563,000 in Luxembourg, 0.2% is comprised of asylum seekers.
Photo by LFR
