| 8 August 2007 During the first seven month of 2007 already 19 persons have asked for asylum in Latvia, which is twice of the total number in whole last year. Refugee status is given to one person from Iraq, and a Belarus citizen has received alternative status. The other applications have been turned down, or they are still under consideration. According to experts for eight persons Latvia was not the target country of requesting the status, but other EU countries, to which the arrived with Latvian visa issued before. According to the Dublin regulation in such cases asylum applications has to be reviewed by that country, which has issued the visa for arrival to an EU country. Among the Baltic countries the largest number of asylum applications is in Lithuania - in this year already 312 applications are received. The smallest number is in Estonia - just 8 applications in 2007. During the first 7 month of 2007 asylum applications has been received from 4 Armenian citizens, 4 Azerbajadzhan, 2 from Russia, Mongolia and Cuba, and 1 application from Belarus, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Ukraine. During the last 9 years, when the asylum procedure works, total 188 applications for asylum has been received, from those 11 persons received a refugee status and 18 persons were granted alternative status. In order to deepen the knowledge of asylum procedure for Migration office and Border guard’s personnel, IOM organizes seminar on 8-9 August, which will be repeated on 17-18 October. The seminars are organized by IOM within the project "Beta", funded by European Refugee Fund. The deputy head of Migration office Ms. Roze stresses that such seminars are needed, since they facilitate asylum system fulfilment, in order Latvia fully complies with EU standards and requirements.
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