Asylum seekers
An asylum-seeker is a person who has left his/her country of origin and formally applied for asylum in another country but whose claim has not yet been concluded.
An asylum-seeker is a person who has left his/her country of origin and formally applied for asylum in another country but whose claim has not yet been concluded. If an applicant is denied refugee status at the first instance level during refugee status determination (RSD), he/she can appeal this negative decision. Until a final decision is reached, this person remains an asylum-seeker.
By the end of October 2015, there were about 39,000 asylum seekers in Kenya. From 1991, UNHCR (acting under its mandate) had been undertaking Refugee Status Determination (RSD) on
behalf of the Kenyan authorities at their request. This was the case until July 2014, when Kenya’s implementation of some key sections of the Refugees Act, 2006, related to RSD commenced. Throughout 2012, 2013 and 2014, UNHCR and the Ministry of Interior and National Coordination of Government have been undertaking a joint RSD capacity-building initiative aimed at developing the ministrys’ capacity in terms of expertise, staffing and infrastructure, in an effort to build a high quality, sustainable RSD system, in keeping with national legislation and Kenya’s international obligations. Since April 2016, the Government has established a national refugee status determination procedure.
