Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Refugee status determination'

The Refugees Act 130 of 1998 enabled South Africa to treat asylum seekers in a humanitarian and dignified manner. However, more than 20 years into democracy, the refugee status determination system, which is the responsibility of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is overburdened with asylum applications. The core criticism against the DHA is its failure to finalize asylum application within 180 days. The key attraction of South Africa’s asylum regime is its non-encampment policy, which bestows on an asylum seeker the right to work or study pending the outcome of the asylum application. This mini-dissertation will not focus on challenges that asylum seekers and refugees may encounter when asserting a specific entitlement. The aim is instead to highlight red flags which will assist any interested party to have a basic understanding of what refugee status determination in South Africa entails. Although refugee status determination is an administrative process, South African courts have laid down jurisprudence confirming the following: (i) At the moment a foreigner expresses an intention to apply for asylum, he or she must be afforded the opportunity to do so; (ii) Illegal entry into the state do not bar application for asylum; (iii) Equality before the law affords asylum seekers suspected of being illegal the right to appear before a competent court within 48 hours of arrest; and (iv) Asylum seekers must apply for immigration permits from abroad. Differently put, an asylum seeker may not apply for a change in status, pending adjudication of an asylum claim in South Africa. To deter illegal migration to South Africa, the DHA has done the following: (a) It unilaterally closed the Cape Town and Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Offices (RRO’s); (b) It established a Border Management Agency to dispense with adjudication of asylum applications at a border post or point of entry; (c) It granted special dispensation work permits to asylum seekers from Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Refugee status determination and dissecting a persecution claim may be perceived as two different enquiries. The latter enquiry is often the subject matter of statutory tribunals and courts during judicial review proceedings. This study explains the key functions of roleplayers, their different processes and inherent functions under the umbrella of refugee status determination. It is recommended that attorneys and non-governmental organisations be allowed to actively participate, from the inception stage, in South Africa’s refugee status determination process. This will minimise the life-cycle of an asylum claim which often ends in judicial review proceedings. This forces the DHA to be accountable, transparent and to reflect on its commitment to treat asylum seekers, refugees and foreigners in good faith and dignity.
Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2018.
Centre for Human Rights
LLM
Unrestricted

This thesis presents a comprehensive structural and ideological reform proposal for refugee status determination in Canada designed to advance the interests of stakeholders. We propose an alternative model for refugee determination, new approaches to fact finding and credibility assessment in the asylum context, and a shift in systemic values. The alternative refugee status determination model proposed envisions moving from a quasi-judicial initial determination body to either a wholly-judicial one, similar to the Tax Court of Canada or a para-judicial/interdisciplinary one, similar to the Tribunal administratif du Québec. New approaches to fact finding and credibility assessment have centered on the notion that truth in the asylum context is relative, not fixed, and that dialogue and unfettered refugee speech should be privileged as much as possible in the hearing room. The new systemic values advanced have been accuracy (achieved through undistorted reception of information and dissemination of high quality contextual information), efficiency (achieved through simplicity, economy and timeliness being built into adjudicative structures) and juridical sensitivity to context (achieved through appropriate selection criteria, context-specific interdisciplinary training, and the fostering of a juristic culture around asylum decision making). The proposals find their inspiration in empirical data, interdisciplinary academic thought and previous reform initiatives, and are designed to conform to the challenges inherent in refugee status determination.
La présente thèse soumet des propositions de transformations structurelles complètes et de réformes idéologiques du processus de reconnaissance du statut de réfugié au Canada. Ces propositions sont conçues pour promouvoir les intérêts des parties prenantes. Un nouveau modèle du processus de reconnaissance du statut de réfugié, de nouvelles approches en matière d'enquête et d'évaluation de la crédibilité dans le contexte de demande d'asile, ainsi qu'un changement des valeurs systémiques sont proposés dans la présente thèse. Pour modifier le processus de reconnaissance du statut de réfugié en vigueur, il est suggéré de mettre sur pied un modèle qui repose sur un organisme entièrement judiciaire, similaire à la Cour canadienne de l'impôt, ou sur un organisme parajudiciaire ou interdisciplinaire, comme le Tribunal administratif du Québec, pour remplacer l'actuel organisme quasi judiciaire chargé d'effectuer la détermination initiale. Les nouvelles approches en matière d'enquête et d'évaluation de la crédibilité sont axées sur la notion que la vérité, dans le contexte de la demande d'asile, est relative et qu'elle n'est pas établie. Dans la mesure du possible, on devrait également privilégier le dialogue et la libre parole des réfugiés dans la salle d'audience. Les nouvelles valeurs systémiques mises de l'avant sont : la précision (apportée par la réception de renseignements non faussés et par la diffusion d'informations contextuelles de haute qualité); l'efficacité (assurée par la simplicité, l'économie et la rapidité mises sur pied dans les structures d'arbitrage); et la sensibilité de l'appareil judiciaire au contexte (exprimée par la sélection de critères appropriés, par une formation interdisciplinaire propre au contexte et par la promotion d'une culture juridique entourant le processus de prise de décision en matière d'asile). Ces propositions puisent leur inspiration dans des données empiriques, des réflexions universitaires interdisciplinaires et des initiatives antérieures de réforme. Elles sont conçues pour s'adapter aux défis inhérents au processus de reconnaissance du statut de réfugié.

Through the evolution of international human rights law and policy, gender has become a prohibited ground for persecution. However the international definition of a refugee contained in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees does not explicitly include gender as an enumerated ground on which persecution can be feared. This omission has required women who fear gender-based persecution to use the Convention's "membership in a particular social group" provision. Traditionally, judicial interpretation of criteria establishing a "particular social group" was not consistent in cases alleging gender-based persecution. In 1993, Canada developed guidelines that attempt to establish a coherent and consistent application of the "particular social group" category. This represents a state policy initiative to recognize the international evolution of policy on gender as a basis for persecution. Although the guidelines challenge theories of state sovereignty in the design and execution of domestic policy, they demonstrate that a coherent and consistent framework for granting asylum status to women who fear gender-based persecution can be developed in such policy.

In processes of refugee status determination, the applicant’s first person testimony plays a critical role. The applicant’s own testimony is often the only evidence available to support the claim being made. This thesis examines the presentation and assessment of refugee applicants’ oral testimony before the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) and the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT). In addressing the conduct of the oral hearing, a central event within refugee status determination processes, it focuses on the critical role played by the form of refugee applicants’ oral testimony. Its central question is how does the form of refugee testimony shape assessments of refugee applicants’ evidence as credible and thus, influence who may access protection and on what terms. These questions are explored through the close reading of 14 refugee applicants’ oral hearings, which took place in Australia and Canada between 2012 and 2014. In analysing the hearings, this thesis argues that the law’s requirement for evidence that is plausible and credible within refugee status determination involves an expectation that applicants present evidence in a compelling narrative form. Using the frameworks of ‘law and literature’ and narrative theory, with attention to questions of temporality, causation and plot, this thesis demonstrates that a demand for narrative structured the oral hearings. The demand encompassed expectations that applicants present evidence marked by linearity; direct and explicable causal connections; and some sense of both ‘plot’ and closure. The hearings woven through this thesis trace how decision-makers articulated such demands and explore the extent to which the demand for narrative represents the State’s requirement that refugees to narrate themselves as particular kinds of subjects, whose complex histories and experiences of fear or harm resolve in the decision to seek refugee status.
Law, Peter A. Allard School of
Graduate

2013 marks another year wrought with debate on asylum seekers and whether they are in fact refugees, fuelled by a growing number of boat arrivals and significant cost to the Australian government. The major political parties in Australia have been focused on how to ‘stop the boats’ and finding alternative ways to process claims for refugee status. Media reports since August 2012 have referred to an enhanced screening process whereby asylum seekers arriving by boat have not been given access to Australia’s refugee status determination procedures, returned to their country without sufficient assessment of any claim for asylum. The Liberal-National Coalition indicated that they will introduce expedited processing of asylum seekers, modelled on the Detained Fast Track Processes in the United Kingdom. The expedited processing of asylum seekers is one alternative to standard refugee status determination procedures. This thesis examines whether Australia can meet its international protection obligations under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees if expedited processing procedures are introduced with the appropriate procedural safeguards. An over view of the expedited procedures in practice in the UK and the US is followed by a comparative analysis and assessment of whether procedures in the US and the UK meet international protection obligations and contain the appropriate procedural safeguards. Finally I have developed recommendations for Australia based on my analysis of the expedited procedures in the US and the UK. If expedited processing is to be implemented in Australia it should complement our current system, not replace it, and any proposal must contain comprehensive procedural safeguards.

Recent feminist criticism has resulted in remarkable changes to the interpretation of the refugee definition. Case law, academic commentaries and gender guidelines now recognize that women may constitute a particular social group under the definition of refugee. However, only those who belong to certain subgroups of women are usually granted asylum because being a woman only is considered too broad to comprise a particular social group. Such restrictive interpretation is theoretically and practically problematic, and it is the primary cause for the inconsistency in the interpretation of the definition of a particular social group and refugee determination in gender-based claims. Through an analysis of recent gender-based cases before the Canadian courts and the Immigration and Refugee Board, this paper argues that this inconsistency will be avoided when categorization of women does not require female claimants to prove characteristics other than their gender. Female refugees who are persecuted for being women do not need to provide additional reasons for their suffering, and this broad categorization of women should be consistently applied in Canada.

Magister Legum - LLM (Public Law and Jurisprudence)
Foreign nationals regularly finds themselves seeking refuge in a host country such as South Africa. One would expect that due to comprehensive legislation ranging from national to international level, foreign nationals would be received in conditions appropriate to their circumstances. However, whether that is in fact the case remains to be a matter of great controversy. The main purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the South African refugee status determination process is legally compliant with its obligations under domestic, regional and international human rights law. By focusing on the refugee status determination process it could best be determined whether the process is legally compliant with the applicable legislative provisions by focusing on what occurs during the application for refugee status in practice. The research question will be answered by focusing on domestic, regional and international legislative provisions, case law, journal articles and academic textbooks amongst other sources. The primary legislative obligation that South Africa has towards asylum seekers is to provide protection to those in genuine need thereof, which requires that the country must refrain from violating their human rights. However the study has revealed that even though South Africa portrays a strong will to protect the rights of asylum seekers, the country still has a long way to go before it is actually achieved. Numerous of asylum seekers still finds it challenging to apply for asylum and to simultaneously enjoy constitutionally guaranteed human rights within the territory of South Africa. Research has established that although South Africa aims to ensure that its asylum system complies with its obligations towards asylum seekers under domestic, regional and international human rights law, there however remains multiple of instances where the country is still in violation of multiple human rights of asylum seekers.

The social organization of Canada's inland refugee determination system is explored in this institutional ethnographic study. First listening to refugee claimants' experience from their vantagepoint on the margins of society, the research then explicates the complementary social relations of the refugee determination system in order to examine the contributing social organization and underlying ideology of the politico-administrative system. Three adult, English-speaking single Nigerian men, seeking Convention refugee status or permanent resident status, were interviewed. Phenomenological methods were utilized to analyze the data. An initial explication of the social relations of the system was conducted through the observation of refugee determination hearings and interviews with knowledgeable informants. Through these interviews and textual analysis, ideology at the politico-administrative level was explored. The findings reveal a contradiction between refugees' expectations based on Canada's international reputation in refugee protection and support of democratic rights, and their reception in Canada. Refugee claimants spoke of their dual experience as characterized by exclusion and marginalization from Canadian society at the very time that they needed to reconstruct their sense of self and adapt; of being held suspect as 'criminals' and 'illegals' by the refugee determination system until proven 'genuine'. Inclusion depended on success in the socially, culturally, and politically constructed Canadian refugee determination system; a process that was foreign to them. Comprehension and successful participation in this process depended in part on the support, resources, and information they accessed during their initial settlement period. The organization of the refugee determination system with a focus on the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) revealed complex independent decision-making in a highly decentralized, but hierarchical and non-transparent administrative system. Inconsistencies in decision making and in the degree to which refugees had the opportunity to relate their experience in refugee determination hearings were articulated and observed. Aspects of the system such as selection of members, institutional culture, independence of the IRB, and discourse on refugees in the Canadian media and society were indicators of how the social relations of the system were organized by an underlying ideology. Implications for the profession of social work and for social change were examined.

The South African Refugees Act1 makes a distinction between an asylum seeker and a refugee. The Act defines an asylum seeker as “a person who is seeking recognition as a refugee in the Republic”. A refugee on the other hand, is a person “who has been granted asylum” in the Republic.2 The legal position in South Africa is that before a person is recognized as a refugee, he or she is protected by the Bill of Rights to a certain extent. In the case of Lawyers for Human Rights v Minister of Home Affairs the Constitutional court confirmed that the protection afforded by the Bill of Rights applies to everyone, including illegal foreigners and asylum seekers.3 This means that asylum seekers and refugees are entitled to most of the rights in the Constitution except those specifically reserved for citizens. Practically though, a refugee enjoys more rights than an asylum seeker. It is therefore in the interest of asylum seekers to have their status as refugees determined. The process of applying for refugee status can be a challenge for those seeking refuge in the Republic of South Africa. For applicants coming from non-English speaking countries, language barrier can also present its own challenges. In terms of the Refugees Act, the first application is to the Refugee Reception Officer at the refugee reception office. The application must be made in person.4 When an asylum seeker is deemed fit to qualify for asylum, he or she will be issued with a permit in terms of section 22 of the Refugees Act. The permit allows the asylum seeker to temporarily reside in South Africa until the finalisation of the asylum claim. This permit does not mean that the asylum seeker is already recognised as a refugee. The permit is an indication that the asylum seeker’s application as a refugee is not yet finalised. The application is considered finalised when it has gone through the hearing before the Status Determination Officer and any review or appeal following from that decision. It is the Refugee Status Determination Officer who will grant asylum or reject the application.5 For people applying for refugee status, the determination by the Status Determination Officer may in itself mark the beginning of the process to be repatriated back to the country they were running away from in the first place. An aggrieved applicant can also apply to have the adverse decision reviewed or even lodge an appeal in accordance with the provisions of the Refugees Act.6 For as long as the application is still pending, the government cannot deport any asylum seeker. An asylum seeker who enters the Republic of South Africa, either through a port of entry or illegally faces many challenges before he or she could reach a refugee reception office. Those who come in through a port of entry face being turned away by Immigration Officers due to lack of documentation. Often, asylum seekers find it hard to reach the refugee reception offices as there is no co-operation between the Immigration Officers, the South African Police Service and the functionaries in the refugee reception offices. To make things worse, the Immigration Amendment Act has reduced the days from fourteen to five, for asylum seekers without valid documentations to reach any refugee reception office. Since refugee reception offices are located only in five cities in the country, these have conditioned asylum seekers and refugees to stay and make their living in those cities as they are required to make frequent renewal of their permit. The closure of some of the refugee reception offices like the Johannesburg refugee reception office has caused a major concern to asylum seekers and refugees. This persistent closure of refugee reception offices may be seen as a further persecution in the eyes of asylum seekers and refugees. The inability of the different functionaries to differentiate between asylum seekers and economic migrants adds to the problem concerning the process of refugee status determination. Instead of seeking to identify people in need of protection from persecution or events seriously disturbing public order, the process is used as an immigration control and this causes more people to be turned away or returned to countries where their lives may be at risk. The communication between the asylum seeker and all the functionaries of the Department of Home Affairs is very important. The lack of professional interpretation functionaries to help asylum seekers who need interpretation contributes to the problems asylum seekers face. Often, asylum seekers have to provide their own interpreters if the Department is unable to do so. The purpose of the study is to investigate the status determination process from a South African perspective and to make recommendations which will try to resolve the problem(s) identified.
Public, Constitutional, & International
LLM

This thesis addresses the topic of mass influx of refugees and its possible solutions. It examines the concept of prima facie refugee status determination in group situations, which is plentifully used in states of the economic South as a solution to mass influx of refugees. Despite its ample use, it is not entirely clear what can be understood by it. A better way to tackle mass influxes of refugees is sought here in response to the European migration "crisis" which has shed light on the unpreparedness of the Common European Asylum System for a large scale influx. The prima facie refugee status determination is put here as an opposite to individualized refugee status determination, which is assumed by the western doctrine and practice to be the only possible way of determining refugee status under the 1951 Convention. Even though individualized refugee status determination may be an appropriate tool in times of relatively low number of refugees, as it has been the case for a long time at the European continent, it may be different in situations of mass influx of refugees. Such individualized refugee status determination is very costly and lengthy procedure and as such not very suitable for situation of mass influx of refugees. To answer the question of whether the prima facie refugee status...

À une époque où l'immigration internationale est de plus en plus difficile et sélective, le statut de réfugié constitue un bien public précieux qui permet à certains non-citoyens l'accès et l'appartenance au pays hôte. Reposant sur le jugement discrétionnaire du décideur, le statut de réfugié n’est accordé qu’aux demandeurs qui établissent une crainte bien fondée de persécution en cas de retour dans leur pays d'origine. Au Canada, le plus important tribunal administratif indépendant, la Commission de l'immigration et du statut de réfugié du Canada (CISR), est chargé d’entendre les demandeurs d'asile et de rendre des décisions de statut de réfugié. Cette thèse cherche à comprendre les disparités dans le taux d’octroi du statut de réfugié entre les décideurs de la CISR qui sont politiquement nommés. Au regard du manque de recherches empiriques sur la manière avec laquelle le Canada alloue les possibilités d’entrée et le statut juridique pour les non-citoyens, il était nécessaire de lever le voile sur le fonctionnement de l’administration sur cette question. En explorant la prise de décision relative aux réfugiés à partir d'une perspective de Street Level Bureaucracy Theory (SLBT) et une méthodologie ethnographique qui combine l'observation directe, les entretiens semi-structurés et l'analyse de documents, l'étude a d'abord cherché à comprendre si la variation dans le taux d’octroi du statut était le résultat de différences dans les pratiques et le raisonnement discrétionnaires du décideur et ensuite à retracer les facteurs organisationnels qui alimentent les différences. Dans la lignée des travaux de SLBT qui documentent la façon dont la situation de travail structure la discrétion et l’importance des perceptions individuelles dans la prise de décision, cette étude met en exergue les différences de fond parmi les décideurs concernant les routines de travail, la conception des demandeurs d’asile, et la meilleure façon de mener leur travail. L’analyse montre comment les décideurs appliquent différentes approches lors des audiences, allant de l’interrogatoire rigide à l’entrevue plus flexible. En dépit des contraintes organisationnelles qui pèsent sur les décideurs pour accroître la cohérence et l’efficacité, l’importance de l’évaluation de la crédibilité ainsi que l’invisibilité de l’espace de décision laissent suffisamment de marge pour l’exercice d’un pouvoir discrétionnaire. Même dans les environnements comme les tribunaux administratifs où la surabondance des règles limite fortement la discrétion, la prise de décision est loin d’être synonyme d’adhésion aux principes de neutralité et hiérarchie. La discrétion est plutôt imbriquée dans le contexte de routines d'interaction, de la situation de travail, de l’adhésion aux règles et du droit. Même dans les organisations qui institutionnalisent et uniformisent la formation et communiquent de façon claire leurs demandes aux décideurs, le caractère discrétionnaire de la décision est par la nature difficile, voire impossible, à contrôler et discipliner. Lorsqu'ils sont confrontés à l'ambiguïté des objectifs et aux exigences qui s’opposent à leur pouvoir discrétionnaire, les décideurs réinterprètent la définition de leur travail et banalisent leurs pratiques. Ils formulent une routine de rencontre qui est acceptable sur le plan organisationnel pour évaluer les demandeurs face à eux. Cette thèse montre comment les demandeurs, leurs témoignages et leurs preuves sont traités d’une manière inégale et comment ces traitements se répercutent sur la décision des réfugiés.
In an era where international immigration is increasingly difficult and selective, refugee status constitutes a valuable public good that enables some non-citizens access and membership to the host country. Based on the discretionary judgment of the decision-maker, refugee status is only granted to claimants who establish well-founded fear of persecution if returned to their home country. Canada’s largest independent administrative tribunal, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), is charged to hear refugee claimants and make refugee status determinations. This dissertation investigates why significant disparities exist among IRB’s politically appointed decision-makers’ refugee status grant rates. As little was known about the concrete ways Canada allocates opportunities for entry and legal status for non-citizens, lifting the blanket of administration was necessary. By exploring refugee decision-making from a Street Level Bureaucracy Theory (SLBT) perspective, and an ethnographic methodology that combined direct observation, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the study sought first to understand whether the variation in grant rates were a result of differences in decision-makers’ discretionary practices and reasoning and second to trace the organizational factors that foster variation. In line with previous scholarship on SLBT that document how the work situation structure discretion and how individual views play in decision-making; this study demonstrates substantive differences among decision-makers in terms of their work routines, conceptions of refugee claimants and the best way to conduct their work. The analysis illustrates how decision-makers apply not a singular but a variety of approaches to the refugee hearing, ranging from rigid interrogation to the more resilient interview style. Despite clear organizational constraints on decision-makers that target to increase consistency and efficiency of refugee determinations, the significance of credibility-assessment and the invisibility of the decision-making space leave ample room for discretionary behavior. Even in rule-saturated environments like administrative tribunals which extensively regulate discretion; decision-making hardly means neutral and hierarchical rule adherence. Instead discretion is nested within the context of interaction routines, work situation, rule adherence and law. It is inherently difficult if not improbable to control and discipline discretionary decision-making even in organizations that institutionalize and standardize training and communicate their demands clearly to decision-makers. When faced with goal ambiguity and with demands that they consider run against their discretionary authority, decision-makers reinterpret their job definition and routinize their practices. They formulate an encounter routine that is organizationally acceptable to assess the people in front of them. This dissertation illustrates how unevenly the claimants, their testimony and evidence are treated and how these treatments are reflected on the refugee decision.

Le Canada accepte des demandes d’asile sur la base de l'orientation sexuelle depuis plus de 20 ans. Quoi qu’il en soit, cette recherche permet de douter du fait que les demandes sur la base de l’orientation sexuelle déposées par des femmes soient traitées de façon adéquate. Pour garantir l’accès à la protection des femmes appartenant à des minorités sexuelles, une analyse du risque de persécution fondé sur l'orientation sexuelle doit incorporer des considérations de genre ainsi que divers autres facteurs d’ordre social et culturel. À partir d’une étude de cas de demandes du statut de refugié déposées par des femmes sur la base de l’orientation sexuelle et rejetées par la Commission de l'immigration et du statut de réfugié entre 2010 et 2013, cette recherche identifie des procédés décisionnels problématiques qui font obstacle au droit d’asile de ces femmes. Les résultats de cette étude révèlent qu’une analyse intersectionnelle, laquelle prend acte des formes variées et multiples de l’oppression dans un contexte social donné, est d’importance cruciale pour une évaluation éclairée et non tronquée des risques de persécution pour les minorités sexuelles féminines. À la lumière de ces résultats, ce mémoire propose qu’une analyse intersectionnelle accompagne une nécessaire formation pour les membres de la Commission de l'immigration et du statut de réfugié du Canada sur des questions particulières à des minorités sexuelles.
Canada has accepted refugee claims on the basis of sexual orientation for more than 20 years; however, research suggests that claims brought by women on the basis of sexual orientation have not always received fair adjudication. To ensure equitable access to protection for sexual minority women, an analysis of their risk of persecution must incorporate gender and other social and cultural factors that influence their experiences. Based on a case study of claims brought by women on the basis of sexual orientation between 2010 and 2013, which were subsequently rejected by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee board, this research identifies decision making that poses obstacles to sexual minority women’s access to refugee protection. The findings from this case study demonstrate that an intersectional analysis, which considers various forms of oppression within a particular social context, is crucial to a complete and informed assessment of the risk of persecution for sexual minority women. In light of these findings, this paper proposes that an intersectional analysis accompany continued training for Immigration and Refugee Board members on issues particular to sexual minorities.