Total population | |
---|---|
3.219 million | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Europe | 1.299 million |
Africa | 1.293 million |
Americas | 350,697 |
Middle East and North Africa | 142,371 |
Asia and the Pacific | 134,613 |
An asylum seeker (also rarely called an asylee applicant) is a person who flees their home country, enters another country and applies for asylum, i.e. the right to international protection, in this other country. An asylum seeker is a type of migrant and may be a refugee, a displaced person, but not an economic migrant. Migrants are not necessarily asylum seekers. 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 applicant becomes an "asylee" if their claim is accepted and asylum is granted. The relevant immigration authorities of the country of asylum determine whether the asylum seeker will be granted protection and become an officially recognised refugee (asylee) or whether asylum will be refused and asylum seeker becomes an illegal immigrant who has to leave the country and may even be deported. The asylum seeker may be recognised as a refugee and given refugee status if the person's circumstances fall into the definition of "refugee" according to the 1951 Refugee Convention or other refugee laws, such as the European Convention on Human Rights – if asylum is claimed within the European Union. However signatories to the refugee convention create their own policies for assessing the protection status of asylum seekers, and the proportion of asylum applicants who are rejected varies from country to country and year to year.
The terms asylum seeker and refugee are often confused: an asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated. On average, about 1 million people seek asylum on an individual basis every year.
Non-governmental organizations concerned with refugees and asylum seekers have pointed out difficulties for displaced persons to seek asylum in industrialized countries. As their immigration policy often focuses on the fight of illegal immigration and the strengthening of border controls it deters displaced persons from entering territory in which they could lodge an asylum claim. The lack of opportunities to legally access the asylum procedures can force asylum seekers to undertake often expensive and hazardous attempts at illegal entry.
In recent years, the public as well as policy makers of many countries are focussing 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 may be even referred to as "queue jumpers", because they did not wait for their chance to be resettled.
Making an application
Some
countries offer "asylum visas" which are a safe and legal way to reach
the country where asylum will be claimed. Many countries don't offer
that, which is why many people take large risks for entering these
countries. In many countries asylum can only be claimed on arrival in
the country:
- When seekings admission at a port of entry (air- or seaports) when they first arrive, i.e. before passing through immigration control.
- In-country applicants apply for asylum onshore after passing through immigration control. Some governments are tolerant and accepting of onshore asylum claims; other governments arrest or detain those who attempt to seek asylum; sometimes while processing their claims.
- After making an unauthorized arrival and bypassing immigration control.
- After making a legal entry but then having lost the right to stay or remain, such as after having overstayed a Visa.
- As a response to being detained or apprehended by immigration enforcement.
Different types of asylum and protection
Asylum
as an institution is not restricted to the category of individuals who
qualify for refugee status. Rather on the contrary, this institution
predates the birth of the international regime for the protection of
refugees.
Convention refugee status
As of 1 July 2013, there were 145 parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention and 146 to the 1967 Protocol.
These states are bound by an obligation under international law to
grant asylum to people who fall within the definition of Convention and
Protocol.
The refugee definitions of 1951 and 1967 are the strictest and most
exclusive and persons who fall within this definition are called
Convention refugees and their status is called Convention refugee
status. Persons who do not fall within this definition may still be
granted complementary forms of protection, if they fall within other
refugee definitions.
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.
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.
Complementary forms of protection
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, but 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. 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 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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
thought 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.
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.
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.
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. 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. This includes access to medical and psychological care.
However, these may vary depending on the host country. For instance,
under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act in Germany, asylum seekers are
outside primary care and are limited to emergency health care,
vaccinations, pregnancy and childbirth with limitations on specialty
care.
Asylum seekers have greater chance of experiencing unmet health needs
as compared to the general German population. They also have greater
odds of hospital admissions and at least one visit to a psychotherapists
relative to the German general population.
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.
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.
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.
Right to remain temporarily
Even
though asylum wasn't granted the applicant may be given the right to
remain temporarily. In the UK refused cases may be granted humanitarian
protection (usually for 5 years) or discretionary leave to remain.
Deportation
Refugees cannot be deported or otherwise forced to go back to their country of origin as this would be refoulement,
which is against international law. But in many cases failed asylum
seekers, i.e. who failed to be considered as refugees, are equally
vulnerable and may face significant risks when going back, voluntarily
or not.
If asylum seekers have serious medical problems or it is not safe
for them to return to their country of origin it is against
international law to deport them. However, sometimes they are deported
even though they face risks there and it is not safe for them to return.
UK authorities have been accused of paying insufficient attention to
medical evidence of torture in some cases.
Deportees may be separated from their families who can
temporarily or permanently continue to remain in the country; younger
persons may not have been to their country of origin for most of their
lives, may not even be able to speak the language, don't know anyone and
have no connection whatsoever with that country, apart from the
formality of having been born there; they may be traumatised through
experiences made in detention; they may be detained again as soon as
they enter their country of origin; they may even be persecuted.
Exclusion from protection
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.