Asylum claims
are first assessed by Home Office case workers who reject virtually all of
them, they are then appealed in the courts where about 20% of claimants gain
permission to stay in the
United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
QUALITY INITIATIVE PROJECT
KEY OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
MARCH 2004 - JANUARY 2005
Introduction
UNHCR has consistently stressed
the importance of having a high quality refugee determination procedure at the
initial stage. High quality systems assist Governments to better meet their
international obligations, are beneficial to refugees and reduce costs to the
tax payer.
UNHCR recognises the challenges
inherent in conducting refugee status determination. These are faced by all
states providing international protection in the global context of forced
migration.
In early 2004, UNHCR was
invited to assist the Home Office to achieve an improvement in the overall
quality of first instance decision making, through auditing existing practice,
and providing recommendations. This project is called the Quality Initiative
(QI).
The initial implementation
phase of the project was March - April 2004. During this period, UNHCR
conducted a needs assessment through a review of the Home Office's first
instance decision making systems. The review included, inter alia, training
programmes, interpretation and application of the Convention, interview
practices and the use of interpreters.
The second stage of the
implementation phase ran until the end of January 2005. UNHCR placed a small
team of staff within the Home Office's premises in Croydon. During this period
the team reviewed 267 first instance decisions (approximately 2% of decisions
made), selected on a random basis from both of the Home Office's sites of
operation in both Croydon and
Key observations
UNHCR has mandate responsibilities to assist
Governments with the improvement of status determination procedures. The
approach of the Quality Initiative elaborated together with the Home Office and
the full cooperation which the UNHCR team has received from Home Office
officials has enabled the project to proceed in an effective and cost efficient
manner.
In UNHCR's view, refugee status determination is a
highly specialised area of work demanding specific skills and abilities.
LTNHCR's Handbook states that an application for asylum should "be
examined within the framework of specially established procedures by qualified
personnel having the necessary knowledge and experience, and an understanding
of an applicant's particular difficulties and needs."
UNHCR's preliminary findings
concerning the quality of first instance decision making reveal a mixed
picture. The organisation is
pleased to note that efforts are already under way to apply the required
standards by Home Office officials. However problems remain. These include
instances of claims for asylum, both well founded and ill founded, which had been
subjected to flawed procedures, such as unsustainable reasoning;
misapplications of the law; failure to refer to country of origin information
(COI); misapplication of COI and failure to consider obvious European
Convention on Human Rights issues. UNHCR also noted frequent inaccuracies and
errors in drafting. It is clear that a proportion of these claims will come
before the Immigration Appellate Authority. UNHCR considers this to be both
inconsistent with the requirements of the Handbook and a waste of public
resources.
Key recommendations
UNHCR
makes the following recommendations with the aim of alleviating some of the
principal gaps identified as part of the audit:
Accreditation
UNHCR believes that accreditation is a key to the overall improvement
in quality.
UNHCR welcomes the Government's insistence on the accreditation of all
publicly funded legal representatives to ensure consistency in the quality of
advice given. Results of the implementation phase sampling
exercise show that there is a similar lack of consistency in the quality of
first instance decision making which could be remedied in the same way.
UNHCR recommends that from
Country of origin information (COI)
UNHCR believes that access to good quality, up-to-date COI together
with the knowledge of how to apply such information to the claim to asylum are
the cornerstones of good quality decision making.
UNHCR recommends that a broader range of COI information should be made
available to caseworkers. The COI should be sufficiently up-to-date and
detailed to facilitate an accurate determination.
UNHCR recommends a complete overhaul and upgrading of IT based research
tools used by caseworkers.
It is UNHCR's opinion that caseworkers should be skilled and trained to
do their own country research. They should be encouraged to consult a variety
of COI sources and assess its relevance to the applicant's claim. They should
also be trained to source all references to COI.
UNHCR recommends that external experts (academics, UNHCR field staff, NGO field staff) should regularly provide briefings on the
latest COI to caseworkers, senior caseworkers and Country Information Policy
Unit staff.
Stress management
UNHCR believes that the identification and management of stress is
essential for the retention of asylum caseworkers. Ignoring stress can result
in staff burn-out, compassion fatigue and leads to a reduction in the quality
of decisions and to high staff turnover.
It is recommended that stress indicators be monitored on a regular
basis, for example, to examine and analyse absence and turnover figures. Stress
management training would usefully be incorporated as part of the regular work
routine. UNHCR further suggests that senior caseworkers attend stress
supervision training.
UNHCR recommends that caseworkers are regularly rotated off decision
making duties; such as one week on other duties every five to six weeks.
Phase three
UNHCR will produce its second
report in August/September 2005. The report will assess the overall level of
quality in decision making, as well as the progress made by the Home Office in
implementing these and other recommendations made through the Quality
Initiative Project.