Research Projects
Other Refugee Systems
National Asylum Systems
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Overview : A Comparative Study of National Asylum Systems
There are 145 countries that have signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the UN Convention). The Convention requires that a signatory country not send a refugee back to a country where they have a well-founded fear of persecution. However the Convention does not say how a country should decide refugee status. Each country has its own process for deciding who is a refugee. Some do not have a refugee claim system at all and rely on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to evaluate the refugee status of asylum seekers residing within their territory.This study compares the refugee claim systems of several countries, all of them democracies operating within the rule of law. All of these systems share common objectives and challenges. They all face the challenge of deciding thousands of claims based on limited evidence where a judicial mistake could result in a refugee being deported to persecution, torture or death. They all claim a common objective of deciding claims quickly, fairly and efficiently. Unfortunately many countries fall short of that goal. Many systems appear to emphasize the speed of the decision over its fairness, not allowing the refugee claimant a full opportunity to prove their claim. At the same time, many countries suffer from backlogs and lengthy delays in reaching final decisions. As well, although applying the same basic definition of a refugee, there is an unjustifiably wide variance in acceptance rates.
This study has focused on nine areas of comparison between asylum systems. They are as follows:
- Types of Protection Available: All of the countries employ the same basic definition of a refugee under the UN Convention and many, including Canada, provide supplementary types of refugee protection. The granting of refugee status may lead to either permanent or temporary protection.
- The Asylum Process: The refugee claim process usually includes three distinct phases:
- Eligibility screening: some claimants are denied full access to the refugee claim process
- The refugee decision: the initial decision may be based on an interview, a tribunal hearing or solely a review of written documents
- Appeal: one or more levels of appeal may be available to refused claimants.
- Asylum Statistics: It is difficult to compare asylum systems statistically when their processes, reporting procedures and refugee flows differ. Basic information about acceptance rates and claim flows are presented.
- Detention: Some countries detain refugees far more frequently than others and some use aggressive detention policies as a means of deterring refugee flows.
- State Support for Refugee Claimants: Under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the UN Convention), every country has fundamental obligations in regard to refugees. Some countries comply with those obligations, some do not.
- Removal of Refused Asylum Seekers: Governments are notoriously ineffective at removing refused asylum seekers and it is virtually impossible to calculate the duration of the refugee claim process from date of claim to date of removal for failed claims. Where available, statistics are provided.
- Access to Asylum: Most countries use various means to prevent refugees from reaching their borders to make a refugee claim. In addition to eligibility screening, various measures are employed at the border to deny full access to the refugee claim process.
- Legislative Authorities: In Canada, asylum procedures are centralized under one statute, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. In many countries, asylum laws are contained within numerous pieces of legislation so that it is difficult to develop a coherent assessment of the entire asylum system.