Country of Origin Information Report

A report entitled "The Refugee Roulette: The Role of Country Information in Refugee Status Determination" was issued yesterday by the UK's Immigration Advisory Service (IAS). Here's a description of the report and its findings from the executive summary:

Country of origin information (COI) is an important part of the refugee status determination process. If legal representatives, advisors or decision-makers are unable properly to access, understand and utilise country information, they cannot provide quality advice and representation to asylum seekers or make adequate decisions. ...Data was gathered from UK Borders Agency (UKBA) staff, legal representatives, immigration judges (IJs) and experts. Overall, insufficient usage of country of origin information is reported to be commonplace, particularly at the initial decision making phase, despite improvements under the New Asylum Model (NAM). Furthermore, a varied use of country information owing to differential levels of knowledge, application and analysis of the information, is observed within each of the stakeholder groups. It is proposed that improvements in using COI can impact on a rigorous determination system.

Other related reports from this project are available on the "Improving the Use of Country Information in Asylum Advice and Representation" page.

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