Our research project ‘Recognising Refugees’ aims to understand the factors that determine who is recognised as a refugee (and who is rejected) globally.[1] In practice, recognition depends not only on the legal definition of ‘refugee’ but also, and most significantly,…
The drafters of the 1951 Refugee Convention must have been exhausted after negotiating the details of the refugee protection doctrine. They seem to have had no energy left to sort out how the refugee status determination (RSD) process should operate,…
The People’s Republic of China acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol in 1982.[1] Two years before, UNHCR had opened a Task Office in Beijing in response to the Indochinese refugee crisis,[2] in the course of which…
In Egypt, UNHCR has operational responsibility for conducting refugee status determination (RSD) as part of its mandate established by a 1954 Memorandum of Understanding with the government. In early 2020 UNHCR reported that 38% of all refugees and asylum seekers…
Resettlement and complementary pathways (such as community sponsorship, scholarships, humanitarian visas and family reunification[1]) are important tools for refugee protection. They provide durable solutions, even though they benefit only a small number of refugees. For many refugees, access to UNHCR…
Under the Kenyan Refugees Act of 2006, asylum seekers in Kenya have to apply to the Commissioner for Refugee Affairs (the Commissioner) for first-instance consideration of their asylum claim. If they are dissatisfied with the decision of the Commissioner, they…
Refugee status determination (RSD) is normally assumed to be the primary responsibility of States. However, as part of its mandate, UNHCR may conduct RSD when a State is unable or unwilling to perform this task, for example, if that State…
In a rare dual system, refugee status determination (RSD) in India is divided between the government and UNHCR. Asylum seekers arriving from non-neighbouring countries, plus Myanmar, are required to approach UNHCR for the determination of their status and for documentation.…
The primary responsibility for refugees – and therefore for refugee status determination (RSD) – lies with States but UNHCR conducts RSD where States are unwilling or less able to do so. Over a 20-year period (1998–2018), there has been some…
One of the most notable recent shifts in the European Union’s asylum policy is the increasing role of the EU’s European Asylum Support Office (EASO)[1] in refugee status determination (RSD). Initially EASO’s mandate was heavily focused on activities such as…