Asylum seeker

For other uses, see Asylum seeker (disambiguation).

An asylum seeker is a person who flees into another country and applies for asylum, i.e. the right to international protection, in this country. An asylum seeker may be a refugee or an economic migrant. 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 relevant immigration authorities of the country of asylum determine whether the asylum seeker will be granted asylum and becomes an officially recognised refugee or whether asylum is refused and the person has to leave the country again and may even be deported. He 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 article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights - if asylum is claimed in Europe. 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. In mid-2014, there were more than 1.2 million asylum-seekers."

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.

Making the application

• When seeking admission at a port of entry. Port applicants apply at 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.
• In-country applicants after making an unauthorized arrival and bypassing immigration control.

Refugee status determination

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.

Group assessment

The asylum applications of so-called "prima facie" refugees will not be assessed individually. Being part of a group that is considered to have good and generally accepted reasons for fleeing is sufficient.

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.

Destitute asylum seekers

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.

Refused asylum seekers

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 application has been unsuccessful the asylum seekers is called a refused or failed asylum seeker. Some failed asylum seekers voluntarily return home and some are forcibly returned. Failed asylum applicants are most often placed in immigration detention before they can be deported. Sometimes they have to return in their country of origin even though they face risks there and it is not safe for them to return.

Exclusion from protection

Asylum seekers who commit 'crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity' do not deserve international protection. Moreover, those who commit 'serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his or her admission' or those who 'act contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations'.

Asylum in different countries

• Asylum in Germany
• Asylum in the United States
• Asylum in Australia

See also

• Subsidiary protection
• Right of asylum
• Deportation
• Exile