Following a demonstration last Wednesday in front of the Direction de l'Immigration on Route d'Arlon in Luxembourg city, ASTI has sent an open letter to Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, signed by three Iraqi asylum-seekers, Moustafa FARAJ, Zaid Al Hashimi and Mohammed Al Maeeni.
The letter (in French) opened by thanking Minister Asselborn for coming to meet them and listening to their grievances. In it, they thank the authorities for the decision to strengthen the staffing of the Refugee Service from the Directorate of Immigration with seven new senior officers so that applicants wait times are shortened. They also expressed satisfaction with the decision to assign these agents mainly to process cases of Iraqi applicants for international protection, and hope for a change in processing times of Iraqi asylum claims.
In addition, they responded positively to a request from the Minister for them to provide names of other people who have been waiting for a response for a long time; however, they stressed this would be difficult as they do not want to discriminate in the treatment of cases of our citizens and believe that "the services of the Directorate of Immigration have the data to evaluate the waiting time records as well as the vulnerability of the applicants status".
They reminded the Minister "the political breakup of Iraq has reduced the country to combat zones controlled by opposing political forces that fight each other. Iraqis in Luxembourg fled insecurity, the permanent state of war in that country and the intense internal conflicts. Their coming to Luxembourg is justified for asylum as in other communities."
