Gang-related Asylum Claims

UNHCR has issued a Guidance Note on Refugee Claims Relating to Victims of Organized Gangs (March 2010), which examines "whether victims of criminal gangs or activities associated with those groups may be considered in need of international protection under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol and, if so, under what circumstances."

Several other resources that focus on gang-related claims for asylum, particularly in the U.S. context, have recently become available, including:

• Chief of Asylum Division Rules that Former Gang Membership can be the Basis for a "Particular Social Group" (ILW, April 2010) [text]
• "Examining the Board of Immigration Appeals' Social Visibility Requirement for Victims of Gang Violence Seeking Asylum," Maine Law Review, vol. 62, no. 1 (2010) [info]
• Matter of S-E-G and Gang-based Asylum Claims [access]
  

Many of these U.S. cases involve Salvadoran claimants. No Place to Hide: Gang, State and Clandestine Violence in El Salvador is a recently published book that "examines the phenomenon of youth gangs and documents human rights violations associated with gang violence as well as the corresponding Salvadoran governmental responses."

A forthcoming resource from UNHCR on this issue is "Living in a World of Violence: An Introduction to the Gang Phenomenon," the background research report for the aforementioned note.

Tagged Publications.