Determining Whether a Person is a Refugee | Making a fair and efficient system
Refugee status determination is the process a country or UNHCR uses to decide whether a person submitting an asylum claim should be considered a refugee. Often using an interpreter, the asylum-seeker tells his or her story to a caseworker who asks questions in order to establish all the facts. The caseworker then compares this account with documentation, such as reports on human rights practices and the person’s country of origin (to decide if the asylum-seeker has a well-founded fear of being persecuted upon his or her return.)
In countries not party to the Refugee Convention or without a properly functioning asylum system, UNHCR may assist governments in refugee status determination by conducting the examination and recommending status, if there is sufficient cause.
UNHCR is also authorized to monitor asylum procedures, case files and decision-making, to ensure the fairness, effectiveness and quality of a nation’s asylum procedure.
Because the countries of Central Europe are parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention and have asylum systems in place, UNHCR does not examine their asylum claims. But we work with the region’s governments to develop asylum systems, ensure that asylum procedures and decision-making operate at a high level, and develop proper internal mechanisms to measure these procedures and decisions.
Improving quality of asylum procedures
Between 2008 and 2010, UNHCR implemented an EU-funded project entitled Asylum Systems Quality Assurance and Evaluation Mechanism (ASQAEM) as part of the Quality Initiative we were conducting in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The project was launched to encourage the development of fair and efficient asylum procedures in these countries in line with the 1951 Convention. As part of the project, we studied and audited asylum procedures, reviewed first and second instance decision-making, identified the strengths and weaknesses in the asylum process of every country, and made suggestions on improvements. The project also included one-on-one coaching for decision-makers and training in areas such as credibility assessments, how to use country of origin information, nationality issues, internal flight, or strategies to accelerate asylum procedures.
The project officials in each country to become internal evaluators giving each asylum authority the ability to make their own in-house assessments. The project also worked with NGOs so that they could also help to monitor and evaluate asylum claims.
Road to internal review and quality assurance
The ASQAEM project brought a systematic approach to quality control in asylum procedures. UNHCR Central Europe followed it with the EU-funded project Further Developing Asylum Quality (FDQ), which was carried out in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, with the assistance of authorities from Austria, Germany and the UK.
The project’s objective was to further improve the quality of asylum procedures, and to build effective and sustainable internal review mechanisms in the participating countries. The project also aimed at developing a methodology to create internal quality assurance mechanisms in other EU countries. At the end of the project, national assessment reports and a manual on assessment methodologies were produced.
In addition to these two projects, UNHCR Central Europe also completed EU-funded research in February 2010 to examine key provisions of the EU Asylum Procedures Directive in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia. This project also revealed shortcomings in legislation and asylum practices in the participating countries, and its research will strengthen the international protection standards of the Common European Asylum System.