Communication and transparency are critical elements of the reception function. Posters and leaflets should be prominently displayed throughout the reception site, together with the showing of relevant videos, the delivery of group counselling in addition to the basic individual counselling conducted by reception staff. Reception and registration facilities also allow the opportunity to promote safe and welcoming spaces for at risk and hidden groups in the community, and targeted information and messaging should be used to foster this (e.g. non-discrimination posters, videos, etc). The sharing of general as well as targeted information helps people understand their rights and responsibilities in the country of asylum, as well as UNHCR and partner processes and activities relevant to them. Effective communication methodologies can also relieve some of the pressure at reception by reducing the time needed for individual counselling.

Information provided in different formats and languages should include:

Each Office should, as appropriate, establish detailed SOPs for reception, including staff roles, responsibilities and oversight, ensuring a consistent and protection-sensitive approach to the reception of persons of concern. Reception SOPs may be stand-alone or incorporated into the Registration SOPs. The SOPs should anticipate all the reasons an individual might approach the Reception desk, from initial reception, assessment of needs, submission and renewal of documents, scheduling of interviews and referral to protection or assistance interventions, and set out the required actions, referral pathways and prioritization procedures. The Registration and Identity Management Officer should ensure reception SOPs benefit from input from all relevant functional units so that reception staff are equipped to provide accurate and up-to-date information to individuals approaching reception and take the appropriate action.

Reception SOPs should include process and data-entry requirements:

In order to ensure that the person has not been registered before, whether in that operation or elsewhere, biometric identification can be established at Reception. During identification, biometrics are checked against the global database (if on-line) or against the local database (if working on a field server or in partner mode). If a person is found to be already registered, then there should be no need for the person to proceed to the registration interview. Follow-up processes for identified persons should be established by the respective SOPs and include a specific course of action depending on whether:

• the individual was already registered in the same country, in which case she or he would not be registered again and would need to be counselled accordingly, or
• the individual was registered in another country, in which case pre-registration would proceed and SOPs would detail the procedure for contacting the operation in the previous country of asylum, and later transferring the case ownership, modifying the BIMS site and any other necessary actions.

Group pre-registration tends to be conducted in emergencies as it allows the collection of key data elements on large populations in a very short time. However, this process can also prove useful in a variety of non-emergency contexts, including, for example, facilitating the recording and electronic transfer of initial data collection by border guards or other actors, organizing transportation to registration locations, scheduling registration interviews, determining prioritized access to registration, facilitating referral of urgent specific needs or other purpose related to registration, protection and assistance. Group pre-registration is carried out to facilitate the initial organization of processes, and should not be used for individual case management activities. For further guidance on group pre-registration, refer to registration guidance for emergencies.

The key elements of a group pre-registration process are:

Group pre-registration may be conducted using RApp (Rapid Application), a core element of the UNHCR Population Registration and Identity Management EcoSystem (PRIMES). RApp is an application that can be used on laptops as well as mobile devices and allows for rapid data entry both on-line and off-line. RApp data is synchronized to v4 when connectivity is available, and linked to the various other tools of the PRIMES ecosystem, such as biometric tools and the various case management modules. Group pre-registration is conducted in the Reception entity in RApp which mirrors the Reception entity in proGres v4, into which data is uploaded. The RApp user guide, RApp baseline SOPs and training materials are available on the PRIMES Support site.

SOPs should promote protection-sensitive reception and registration procedures in which vulnerable persons are prioritised, as appropriate, throughout all processes. Individuals in the following general categories should be invited to advance to the front of the queue during reception:

Depending on the scale and structure of reception activities, individuals who approach reception with any of the above specific needs may, in accordance with clearly defined procedures, be prioritized for registration interview (e.g. using different colour tokens in a large registration centre context, or by issuing a fast-tracked appointments for registration interview in other contexts) and/or referred to Protection staff to determine urgent or longer-term needs.

Offices should work to create a reception environment that encourages self-reporting of specific needs or risks, given that there are a wide range of serious or urgent needs that are not always visible, such as those of some women and girls at risk, LGBTI individuals, survivors of trafficking or torture and others. Personnel situated at the entry/access point should be informed about expedited processes for persons with specific needs. In larger operations, it may be worthwhile to assign a member of the reception team to monitor the overall reception area (and beyond),² actively pre-identifying persons with specific needs and bringing them forward.

In addition to self-reporting of specific needs, internal and external referral pathways should be in place to allow for the prioritization of individuals who have specific needs that are known to other colleagues or external actors. Referral pathways – based on prior mapping, consultation and assessment of service providers in the local context – channel individuals into UNHCR’s reception, registration and case management processes and onwards to appropriate protection services. Prioritized processing and referral should occur based on pre-established criteria agreed by all parties participating in the referral system. Such criteria will vary depending on the gravity of risks faced by concerned individuals, service provider capacity to respond, and other context-specific factors, and should be developed by Protection colleagues and/or other specialists (e.g. medical, etc.). Referral pathways should envisage special procedures for emergencies and highly-sensitive cases.

All colleagues involved in referral pathways, including partners and local services, should be trained on how the referral system works, in order to ensure consistency in how individuals are identified and referred and how their cases are filed, treated and followed-up. Clear SOPs must describe how and by whom specific needs-related information is entered and updated in RApp or in proGres. Each party working on a referral should have access to a unified database (or system of interoperable databases), where information can be regularly updated by all those working on a particular case. User access rights are defined and applied to allow for restricted access to certain sensitive information.

2 Rotating reception staff in this way can also bring other improvements and efficiencies to the reception process (better monitoring of the flow, delay, no-show rate as well as on-the-spot trouble-shooting), while diversifying the tasks of the Reception team.

The registration schedule is established by calculating the resource capacity in the registration location in light of the operational priorities set out in the registration strategy. For example, some operations may adopt a first come-first served approach to scheduling, while for others it will be necessary to take a differentiated approach in which certain nationalities, groups or profiles may be scheduled with greater or lesser priority based on protection risk, processing methodology or other operational exigency. Furthermore, scheduling may be done on a group or individual basis. Group scheduling means organizing the schedule according to group criteria, such as location, family size or other criteria. This approach is common in refugee camp contexts, in which individuals are invited by group to approach the registration location on a certain day(s) and are then registered on a “first come, first served” basis, except for persons with specific needs, who are fast-tracked through the use of tokens or other tools. Individual scheduling refers to the methodology in which individuals are scheduled for registration interview on a specific day. Regardless of the scheduling approach adopted in an operation, interview places must be assigned to individuals based on transparent criteria documented in the SOPs and/ or the Registration strategy.

Where other interventions or case management activities require scheduling by reception staff, SOPs should set out the related scheduling procedures as agreed with the relevant functional unit.

Exceptionally, individuals may have their registration interview scheduled in absentia, for example by contacting UNHCR reception staff by telephone, ideally through video call (e.g. Skype). This may be appropriate where there are security or other barriers impeding physical access to reception processes. The in absentia reception record data should then be used to create a registration record upon physical registration. In highly restrictive registration contexts, the same process could be implemented to conduct a determination as to whether or not an individual may be eligible for registration,³ based on the existence of protection risks or specific needs. Such a determination should ideally be conducted via video call, for example, with the individual calling in from the office of a trusted intermediary (e.g. an NGO) and handled by Protection staff or Registration staff trained to identify and discuss protection issues. It is important to distinguish between telephone and other exchanges prior to registration and the registration interview itself, which should be in-person.

Where the technical capacity exists, individuals should be encouraged to request a registration interview with UNHCR via an appropriate online application or kiosk.

3 Should the video call be inconclusive with regards to admissibility for registration, the person should be requested to approach the Office for further assessment.