The number of asylum seekers in Europe has increased continuously over the last years: Eurostat counted 182,000 first applications in 2008 in the EU including Switzerland and Norway, in the "crisis year 2015" these applications reached 1.3 million. Both the number of asylum seekers and the asylum procedures vary considerably among countries in Europe. Therefore, the European Commission aims at the harmonization of asylum policies in order to establish a common efficient and fair approach towards refugees.