Quality Initiative and Integration
Quality Integration Project
As of 2010, UNHCR continues to work with the Home Office to implement recommendations stemming from collaborative work under the Quality Initiative. Recognising the Home Office's significant progress in developing the area of Quality Assurance in asylum, the project has now moved into a phase of supporting the Home Office's continued development and integration of quality assurance mechanisms into the various areas of work that go towards addressing international protection concerns. This new phase and the related joint project between the UNHCR and the Home Office is known as the Quality Integration project.
Fifth Report (July 2017)
Evaluation of the UNHCR Quality Integration Project In the United Kingdom
Fourth Report (August 2017)
Left in Limbo: UNHCR Study on the Implementation of the Dublin III Regulation
Third Report (December 2013)
Considering the Best Interests of a Child Within a Family Seeking Asylum
Key Findings
Second Report (June 2013)
Untold Stories: Families in the Asylum Process
Key Findings
First Report (August 2010)
Quality Initiative Project
The Quality Initiative project ran from 2004 to 2009 and aimed to positively influence the quality of first instance decision-making and related asylum procedures in the UK and more specifically, in the Home Office - the Government department responsible for this area of work. UNHCR's contribution has always intended to be complementary to other mechanisms that ensure due process and fairness in asylum procedures.
Over the course of the project, six reports setting out UNHCR's findings under the remit of the project and detailing specific recommendations were supplied to the Minister for Borders and Immigration on a confidential basis.
Findings highlighted a number of causes for concern, focusing in particular on the application of the refugee definition, the approach to establishing the facts ("credibility") and the conduct of interviews.
Recommendations covered areas including child asylum cases, the detained fast-track (DFT), recruitment, training & accreditation, identification and management of stress, interviews, use of interpreters, provision of COI and guidance, targets, assessment and monitoring of decisions and interviews.
Sixth Report (Apr 2008 - March 2009)
Fifth Report (Feb 2007 - March 2008)
Fourth Report (March 2006 - Dec 2006)
Third Report (Sep 2005 - Feb 2006)
Second Report (Feb 2005 - Aug 2005)
First Report (March 2004 - Jan 2005)