Over the last ten years, the Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) has received more than 5,000 applications from asylum seekers, LETA was informed by the PMLP.
After assessing the documents submitted by each person and their individual situation, only 24 percent of all applicants were granted international protection status.
The right to apply for asylum in Latvia and, as a result, to obtain refugee or alternative status is determined by the Asylum Law. The State Border Guard and the PMLP are the main institutions responsible for ensuring the asylum procedure in Latvia.
The State Border Guard registers asylum applications, identifies asylum seekers, takes fingerprints, obtains initial information from asylum seekers and takes other measures to obtain all the information to be subsequently transferred to the PMLP for review and decision-making on granting or refusing to grant refugee or alternative status.
The State Border Guard is also competent to assess whether there are circumstances requiring detention of an asylum seeker.
During the examination of the application, an in-depth personal interview with the asylum seeker is conducted. Each asylum application is carefully examined on a case-by-case basis, using accurate and up-to-date information from various sources, such as the European Union Asylum Agency and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and international human rights organizations, on the general situation in the asylum seeker’s country of origin and, if necessary, in the countries through which he or she has traveled.
The laws and regulations of the country of origin and the manner in which they are applied shall also be taken into account. The time limits for taking a decision can therefore vary considerably – but most often a decision is taken within a maximum of six months of the application being registered with the Border Guard, but this can be extended in justified cases to a total of 15 months from the time the application was registered.
At the same time, the PMLP emphasizes that a decision on refusal to grant refugee or alternative status may also be adopted in a shortened procedure, if, for example, the asylum seeker, when submitting the application, has indicated only circumstances which cannot be the basis for granting refugee or subsidiary status.
If the asylum seeker is from a safe country of origin, or if the asylum seeker has misled the authorities involved in the asylum procedure by providing false information or documents or by failing to provide adequate information or documents proving his/her identity or nationality, they are denied.
If the asylum seeker has lodged an application primarily in order to hinder or prevent his/her expulsion from Latvia, or if the asylum seeker poses a threat to national security or public order and safety, they are denied.
The asylum process balances humanity towards asylum seekers and responsibility before the law, the administration stresses, adding that Latvian institutions, as well as asylum seekers themselves, have various obligations under the law, such as to cooperate with Latvian institutions, provide truthful and complete information about the reasons for seeking asylum.
The accommodation centers for asylum seekers in Mucenieki and Liepna are accommodation facilities run by the administration, where asylum seekers who do not have sufficient resources at the time of the examination of their application can live in conditions adequate to human dignity and basic needs.
Asylum seekers have the right to basic health care, to receive necessary information on the asylum process and to appeal against negative decisions of the State concerning their legal protection status.
Source: BNS
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