Refugee status determination is the examination process by a country’s authority or UNHCR of whether an individual who has submitted an asylum claim is indeed a refugee. The asylum-seeker is asked to tell his or her story in detail to a caseworker, who asks questions trying to establish all the facts. Often the process is facilitated by a professional interpreter. Then the caseworker compares the life history of the person with detailed reports, e.g. the human rights practice, about the person’s country of origin to decide whether the person indeed has a well-founded fear of being persecuted or faces serious threats in case he or she returns. 

In countries that are not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or where there is no asylum system or the system does not function properly, UNHCR has the mandate to assist governments in refugee status determination, to conduct the examination and give refugee status itself. UNHCR is also authorized to monitor asylum procedures, see case-files and monitor the decision-making. 

Refugee protection starts with the definition of who should be protected and the quality of the asylum decision and the preceding procedure is decisive. For UNHCR, it is vital to ensure the fairness, effectiveness and quality of the asylum procedure so that it can fulfill its primary mandate and goal to provide international protection to displaced people.

The countries of Central Europe are all parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention and have asylum systems in place therefore UNHCR in Central Europe does not examine individual asylum claims. It works, however, with the region's governments to develop their national asylum systems, ensure the quality of asylum procedures and decisions and develop proper internal quality assurance mechanisms.

Improving quality of asylum procedures

Between 2008 and 2010 UNHCR implemented the EU-funded project “Asylum Systems Quality Assurance and Evaluation Mechanism” (ASQAEM), as part of its Quality Initiative, in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. 

The project aimed at supporting the continuous development of fair and efficient asylum procedures, based on the full and inclusive application of the 1951 Convention. It studied and audited asylum procedures, looking both at first and second instance decisions, identified strengths and weaknesses in national processes and suggested specific actions to improve the quality, fairness and efficiency of the decision making. The project also included one-on-one coaching for decision-makers and thematic trainings on specific aspects such as credibility assessments, the use of country of origin information, nationality, internal flight alternative or accelerated procedures. The project trained internal evaluators within each asylum authority, so that an in-house quality assurance capacity could be generated. The project also addressed the civil society in order to build monitoring and evaluation capacity within NGOs dealing with asylum claims. 

Road to internal review and quality assurance 

The ASQAEM project has highlighted the importance of a systematic approach to quality control in asylum procedures. Therefore UNHCR continued the project’s work in Central Europe with a new EU-funded project “Further Developing Asylum Quality” (FDQ). 

The project was carried out in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, involving the assistance of authorities from Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom who shared their experience. The objective of the project was on the one hand to further improve the quality of asylum procedures, on the other, to build an effective and sustainable internal review mechanism that can maintain good quality and ensure the effective and sustainable functioning of the national Quality Assessment Units in the participating countries. The project also aimed at developing a methodology to guide the future establishment of internal quality assurance mechanisms in other EU Member States. At the end of the project, national assessment reports and a manual on assessment methodologies was planned. 

In addition to these two Quality Initiative projects, UNHCR in Central Europe also completed an EU-funded research project in February 2010 to examine the application in practice of key provisions of the EU Asylum Procedures Directive in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. This project also highlighted gaps in the current legislation and practice of the participating States and the research will help strengthen international protection standards in future as part of a Common European Asylum System.