Asylum seeker
Total population | |
---|---|
2.9 million[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Venezuela | 264,000 |
Afghanistan | 208,500 |
Cuba | 194,700 |
Nicaragua | 165,800 |
Ukraine | 152,000 |
Syria | 147,600 |
Colombia | 90,500 |
Honduras | 79,700 |
Haiti | 73,500 |
Turkey | 71,800 |
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who is making a claim to have been forcibly displaced and might have fled their home country because of war or other factors harming them or their family. If their case is accepted, they become considered a refugee.[2] The terms asylum seeker, refugee and illegal immigrant are often confused.
A person becomes an asylum seeker by making a formal application for the right to remain in another country and keeps that status until the application has been concluded. The relevant immigration authorities of the country of asylum determine whether the asylum seeker will be granted protection and become an officially recognized refugee or whether asylum will be refused and the asylum seeker becomes an
In North American English, the term asylee is also used. An asylee can either be an asylum seeker, as defined above, or a person whose claim for asylum was accepted and asylum was granted.[3] On average, about 1 million people apply for asylum every year.[4]
The asylum seeker may be recognised as a refugee and given
Types of asylum and protection
Asylum as an institution is not restricted to the category of individuals who qualify for refugee status. On the contrary, this institution predates the birth of the international regime for the protection of refugees.
Asylum seekers who have committed crimes against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity, or other serious non-political crimes, or whose actions are contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, are excluded from international protection.[5]
Convention refugee status
The 1951 Convention, in Article 1, endorses a single definition of the term "refugee". Its emphasis is on protection from political or other forms of persecution. The Convention defines a refugee as:
someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.[6]
As of 1 July 2013, there were 145 parties to the
The practical determination of whether a person is a refugee or not is most often left to certain government agencies within the host country. In some countries the refugee status determination (RSD) is done by the UNHCR. The burden of substantiating an asylum claim lies with the claimant, who must establish that they qualify for protection.[8][9]
In many countries, country-of-origin information is used by migration officials as part of the assessment of asylum claims, and governments commission research into the accuracy of their country reports. Some countries have studied the rejection rates of their migration officials making decisions, finding that individuals reject more applicants than others assessing similar cases—and migration officials are required to standardise the reasons for accepting or rejecting claims, so that the decision of one adjudicator is consistent with what their colleagues decide.[10]
The refugee definition of the 1951 Convention is universally binding, but there are many other definitions according to which protection may be offered to people who do not fall within this definition.
Subsidiary protection status
Subsidiary protection is an international protection for persons seeking asylum who do not qualify as refugees. It is an option to get asylum for those who do not have a well-founded fear of persecution (which is required for refugee status according to the 1951 Convention), but do indeed have a substantial risk to be subjected to torture or to a serious harm if they are returned to their country of origin, for reasons that include war, violence, conflict and massive violations of human rights.[11] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and European Union law have a broader definition of who is entitled to asylum.
Temporary protection visa
Temporary protection visas are used to persons in Australia who applied for refugee status after making an unauthorised arrival. It is the main type of visa issued to refugees when released from Australian immigration detention facilities and they are required to reapply for it every three years.
Statistics of asylum decisions
Decisions | 2014 [12] | 2013 [13] | 2012 [14] | 2011 [15] | 2010 [16] | 2009 [17] | 2008 [18] | 2007 [19] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Convention refugee status | 286,723 | 213,723 | 210,851 | 172,566 | 175,163 | 225,112 | 148,241 | 149,133 |
Complementary protection status | 339,783 | 72,832 | 51,058 | 43,945 | 47,822 | 49,430 | 62,726 | 60,048 |
Rejected | 434,850 | 376,181 | 437,969 | 360,746 | 356,154 | 310,945 | 304,811 | 259,982 |
Otherwise closed | 349,440 | 219,461 | 205,351 | 192,472 | 153,016 | 158,219 | 148,001 | 170,704 |
Total | 1,410,796 | 881,197 | 915,023 | 770,406 | 732,155 | 743,205 | 669,316 | 639,844 |
Status determination processes
Group determination
Asylum seekers may be given refugee status on a group basis. Refugees who went through the group status determination are also referred to as prima facie refugees. This is done in situations when the reasons for seeking refugee status are generally well known and individual assessment would otherwise overwhelm the capacities of assessors. Group determination is more readily done in states that not only have accepted the refugee definition of the 1951 Convention, but also use a refugee definition that includes people fleeing indiscriminate or generalized violence, which are not covered in the 1951 Convention.[20]
Individual assessment
For persons who do not come into the country as part of a bigger group, individual asylum interviews are conducted to establish whether the person has sufficient reasons for seeking asylum. Meanwhile, high numbers of asylum seekers necessitate governments to provide machine learning systems to assist both asylum seekers and immigration officers in performing fair and just assessments.[21]
Appeals
In many countries, asylum applicants can challenge a rejection by challenging the decision in a court or migration review panel. In the United Kingdom, more than one in four decisions to refuse an asylum seeker protection are overturned by immigration judges.[22]
Rights of asylum seekers
Whilst waiting for a decision asylum seekers have limited rights in the country of asylum. In most countries they are not allowed to work and in some countries not even to volunteer. In some countries they are not allowed to move freely within the country.[citation needed] Even access to health care is limited. In the European Union, those who have yet to be granted official status as refugees and are still within the asylum process have some restricted rights to healthcare access.[23] This includes access to medical and psychological care.[23] However, these may vary depending on the host country. For instance, under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act (Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz) in Germany, asylum seekers are outside primary care and are limited to emergency health care, vaccinations, pregnancy and childbirth with limitations on specialty care.[23] Asylum seekers have greater chance of experiencing unmet health needs as compared to the general German population. Asylum seekers also have greater odds of hospital admissions and at least one visit to a psychotherapist relative to the German general population.[citation needed]
Concerns in asylum-seeking processes
Research suggests cross-sector collaboration is key to assist refugees and asylum seekers resettle and integrate into receiving communities, workplaces and schools.[24][25][26][27]
Non-governmental organizations concerned with refugees and asylum seekers have pointed out difficulties for
In recent years, the public as well as policy makers of many countries are focusing more and more on refugees arriving through third country resettlement and pay less and less attention to asylum seekers and those who have already been granted refugee status but did not come through resettlement. Asylum seekers have even been referred to as 'queue jumpers', because they did not wait for their chance to be resettled.[28]
Legal interpreters are assigned to assist asylum seekers throughout interviews and court proceedings. These legal interpreters reflect the training they received in the training program they were certified in. The accuracy of the legal interpretation may vary depending on the training received from the interpreter and potential biases they carry coming into the interpreting session. Lack of training in asylum settings may influence interpretation sessions.[29]
Challenges in Relaying Trauma and Experiences
Asylum seekers encounter significant challenges in effectively conveying their
The study underscores the complexity of asylum seekers' narratives, often shaped by
Language barriers further compound these challenges. Asylum seekers' linguistic disparities and stress during interviews impede their ability to articulate experiences accurately.
Additionally, the study delves into nonverbal communication complexities, particularly regarding eye contact and credibility within asylum hearings. Cultural variations in eye contact influence credibility assessments, potentially leading to misinterpretations by immigration personnel. Differing cultural expectations impact asylum seekers' credibility assessments, potentially affecting the outcomes of their claims.[31]
Destitution
Because asylum seekers often have to wait for months or years for the results of their asylum applications and because they are usually not allowed to work and only receive minimal or no financial support, destitution is a considerable risk.[citation needed]
Asylum seekers usually get some kind of support from governments whilst their application is processed. However, in some countries this support ends immediately once they are given refugee status. But the fact that they were given refugee status does not mean that they were already given all the documents they need for starting their new lives.[32] Long waiting times significantly reduce the likelihood to obtain a job and the social integration of refugees.[30]
Refusal of asylum
It often happens that the country neither recognizes the refugee status of the asylum seekers nor sees them as legitimate migrants and thus treats them as illegal aliens. If an asylum claim has been rejected, the asylum seeker is said to be refused asylum, and called a failed asylum seeker. Some failed asylum seekers are allowed to remain temporarily, some return home voluntarily and some are forcibly returned. The latter are most often placed in immigration detention before being deported.
In some cases in which asylum is not granted, the applicant is given the right to remain temporarily. In the UK, refused cases may be granted humanitarian protection (usually for five years) or discretionary leave to remain.
Asylum and refugee law by jurisdiction
See also
- Right of asylum
- Church asylum
- Impediment to expulsion
- Internally displaced person
- Forced displacement in popular culture
- Refugee employment
- Refugee identity certificate
- Refugee roulette
- Sanctuary city
- Spreidingswet, Netherlands asylum legislation
- Statelessness
- Transgender asylum seekers
Related organizations
- Organization for Refugees Asylum and Migration[35]
- Amnesty International
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Cities of Refuge Network
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
References
- ^ "Global Trends Report 2022" (PDF). UNHCR global. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 October 2023.
- ^ . Retrieved 27 September 2020.
- ^ "Asylee Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster".
- ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "Asylum-Seekers". Unhcr.org. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
- ^ Handbook on European law relating to asylum, borders and immigration, 2014, page 83
- UNHCR. 2010. p. 3.
- ^ María-Teresa Gil-Bazo, 2006: Refugee status, subsidiary protection, and the right to be granted asylum under EC law; Research Paper No. 136, page 7
- ^ "Asylum Policy Instruction: Assessing credibility and refugee status" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
- ^ "Assessment of Credibility in Claims for Refugee Protection - Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada". Irb-cisr.gc.ca. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
- ^ "Improving consistency in decision-making". ALRC. 19 December 2011. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
- ^ María-Teresa Gil-Bazo, 2006: Refugee status, subsidiary protection, and the right to be granted asylum under EC law; Research Paper No. 136, page 10
- ^ "2014 Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2013 Statistical Yearbook: Tables of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2012: Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2011: Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2010: Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2009: Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2008: Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "2007: Statistical Yearbook: Table of Contents for the Excel Annex tables". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ "UNHCR Resettlement Handbook, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2011, page 19" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2014.
- .
- The Huffington Post, 18 April 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
- ^ PMID 26537498.
- S2CID 216204168.
- S2CID 238706123, retrieved 27 September 2021
- ISSN 1558-9080.
- S2CID 234855263.
- ^ Resettlement: where’s the evidence, what’s the strategy?, Alexander Betts, Forced Migration Review 54, January 2017, page 73
- .
- ^ PMID 32699551.
- ^ ISSN 1751-3057.
- ^ "New refugees face homelessness and destitution". Refugeecouncil.org.uk. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
- ^ "EDAL | European Database of Asylum Law".
- ^ "Code de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile [in French]. Légifrance. Updated 27 November 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ^ Home page, ORAM. Retrieved 2020 December 4.
Notes
- ^ Adopted by Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela
Further reading
- Hatton, Timothy J. 2020. "Asylum Migration to the Developed World: Persecution, Incentives, and Policy. " Journal of Economic Perspectives 34(1):75-93.