Chances for recognition as refugee vary from country to country,
depending on the following factors:
- What happened to you in your country of origin and what will
happen to you if you return there?
- How is the decision practice of each country of asylum on applications
from a certain country of origin?
- Are there alternatives to an asylum procedure?
The first question is dealt with in the section "Are
you a refugee?" Some answers to the third questions are given
in the section "Alternatives
to Dublin? Humanitarian protection".
But the second question is dealt with here. As we cannot reflect the
detailed decision
practice of all asylum countries regarding all countries of origin, we
just present to you the recognition rate statistics. We know that this
is not an
adequate answer in all cases. But it is, generally speaking, much better
than nothing.
Choosing a Country
Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive information on recognition
rates available for all countries of origin and countries of asylum.
Currently, the best source
is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, though UNHCR relies
on national statistics that are not yet harmonised. Until we are able
to prepare
more easily-used charts, we suggest you study the statistics maintained by
the UNHCR. (You'll
need Acrobat Reader to do this).
Chose your country of origin in the pull-down menu on the right
column. This will open an Adobe "pdf" document, with bookmarks
on the left and text on the right. Using the bookmarks on the left,
cick on "Asylum applications and refugee status determination." This
will bring up a table comparing recognition rates by country of refuge.
Compare the figures in the column "Recognition rates / TOTAL";
this is the third column from the right hand side. 100 = best possible;
0 = worst possible. IMPORTANT: Sometimes there are various figures
for a certain country of asylum. Read the codes carefully to understand
the statistics.
For those of you who want to understand more on the UNHCR statistics,
please read the following technical explanations:
We recommend to look at the ”recognition rates total” and not at ”refugee
recognitions” because this column takes other forms of protection into
account – for some asylum states at least. However we have to recognise
that the first is based on less reliable data than the second: Some asylum
states with decentralised aliens authorities and courts have no reliable data
on other forms of protection. Of course the best is to compare the two columns
and to search for additional information to clarify open questions – if
time is left.
- "FI" indicates the success rate within the "first
instance". "AR", "JR", or "CA" are
different second instance procedures. When an asylum country gives
different figures for "FI", "AR", "JR",
or "CA", the real recognition rate can only be estimated.
It will be between the "FI" rate and the sum of "FI" + "AR" + "JR".
In most of the cases, it is closer to the "FI"-figure.
- The best estimation of the real recognition rate currently possible
can be expressed as follows: Real recognition rate = AR-recognition
rate x AR-Total / FI-Total + FI-recognition rate. But this is only
an estimation because "AR", "JR", or "CA" cases
are older than "FI" cases. Though it is far from perfect,
we will base our future simplified chart on what we call the real
recognition rate.
Choosing Where to File in the United States
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