06. Appendix 2 Examples of refugee work at section level Underlag till styrelsemöte 1-2 maj 1997

APPENDIX 2: EXAMPLES OF REFUGEE WORK AT SECTION LEVEL


The following "case studies" do not purport to give a complete picture of the refugee work undertaken in the sections covered. Rather, they concentrate on those areas of work relevant to this study. The sections mentionend here were chosen primarily for practical reasons: either the project officer was able to visit them and talk to the refugee coordinators in the respective sections or the information was provided in writing by members of the reference group. While the examples given may not fully reflect refugee work done by al sections and structures around the world, they should provide more insight into important aspects of that work.


DANISH SECTION

The refugee coordinator is one of 15 staff at the Danish Section central office in Copenhagen. She presently works 30 hours a week. There are also five volunteers in the refugee department, four of them work on individual cases on a regional basis. Volunteers are working from the office; there are two volunteers in the regional office in Arhus. all cases are channelled through the central refugee department; there is no membership structure.
50% of the work of the refugee department is work on individual cases. al does not get involved with a case before the first instance (negative) decision, but may also be involved with a case after all legal appeals have been exhausted. Most of the cases are supported iiupon appeal. In the Danish asylum system asylum-seekers are provided with a lawyer upon appeal; at this stage Ah support normally takes the form of a letter ofm5uppiQrt~to the lawyer. About 100 cases a year are supported by AI.
Upon initial contact with the asylum-seeker a provisional assessment is being made. If the case cannot be supporteq,; ~e asylum-seeker is~toId so in writing, often referring to the al irefugee mandate. In other cases al external country information is provided. i~(al information is distributed in English and not normally translated into Danish.) In more substantial cases (most cases) al reports are being sent with some additional comments in a letter. i The IS is the main source for this information. Normally, an abstract of the case is being faxed to the IS research team with questions attached. On average, there are several such inquiries a week to the IS. Before contacting the IS requests for information are often directed to the country coordinators in the section, in particular regarding political parties and groups.
Country information, including additional information provided by country coordinators, is
being filed in the central file of the section. The refugee department is keeping a file of
individual cases.
In 1993 the refugee department started its own documentation project consisting of a database with details of cases handled since 1992. There are now some 300 cases on the database and more case information (on registration forms) is waiting to be procei~ssed as the database has not been updated since 1995. The information on the individual cases, if available, is very detailed inluding personal information (name, sex, ethnic origin, religion, medical information), political activities, organisational affiliation, political party membership, legal proceedings, imprisonment and human rights violations in the country of origin and legal procedure and status in Denmark. The database was started with the purpose; among other things, to identify similar cases, to provide information about events, places and dates and about organisations, political parties and patterns of human rights violations in the country of origin.


GERMAN SECTION

The refugee department in the German Section now consists of the refugee coordinator and three other full-time staff. The work undertaken by the department can be roughly divided into four categories: work on asylum policies and asylum law, individual case work, expert opinions delivered to administrative courts and the large area of 'general service' which includes dealing with internal and external requests for information. Individual case work takes up less than 15% of the time of the staff, while work on the expert opinions amounts to almost 50% and service to more than 15% of staff time spent. Requests for publicly available al material are now being handled by the documentation department. Refugee related requests make up for a considerable percentage of the information requests received there.
The refugee team closely collaborates with a membership network consisting of some 40 or so working groups spread all over the country. the members of which are involved in counselling asylum-seekers and working on individual cases on the local level. These local members also make preliminary case assessments and support asylum-seekers within al's mandate. In exceptional cases, al may cover for the fees of a lawyer representing the asylum-seeker before the courts.
There is also a network of some 15 or so country experts (in addition to the country coordinators) drafting expert opinions for the administrative courts. These expert opinions are being filed at the request of the courts and may cover dates and facts relating to an individual case history, but also more general questions, such as the treatment of a religious or ethnic minority in a specific area of the country of origin or the fear of persecution of members of a political party during a certain period. The number of these expert opininons produced for the courts has risen dramatically over recent years: While until the mid-I 980s the overall number was between 20 and 80 a year, the number rose to 480 in 1993 and a record 700 in 1995. (The number of requests is even higher.) In 1994/95 requests for expert opinions on some 90 countries were received, with former~yugo5Iavia, Togo, Zaire, Turkey, Lebanon, algeria and Romania at the top of the list. While the expert opinions heavily rely on al-information, information from other reliable sources is often also included with a imenti6n of the sou#ce. Facts not immediately related to the al-marldate are also passed on, i i if they happen to be known to the authority.
Apart from the Qftein detailed and time-consuming requests from the courts, which may require ~xtensive consultation with ~ coordinators and/or IS research teams. there is a large number of ~ from local al-members, refugee counselling i ~ lawyers and individuals relating to asylum law and country of origin information. Most of these requests can be dealt with by providing external al country reports or other information available in the documentation department; some involve a short letter or a quick check with the IS from the refugee department. The refugee department also produces a monthly abstract of important case law and a number of background notes on relevant country situations or specific issues (e.g. an analysis of whether certain neighboring countries can be considered 'safe third countries', or an assessment of the likelihood of persecution for members of certain ethnic or political groups. if forcefully returned to countries such as Ethiopia, Togo or Zaire). The expert opinions and background notes are being produced in German; a fair number of al country reports have been. translated into German by the country coordinators, but some are only available in English. all the material produced, including the case abstracts and expert opinions, is ,nbw available electronic~~~yivi~ the 'info-server' internally as well as externally.


GHANIAN SECTION

Refugee work in the Ghanaian Section is in the developing stage. A refugee team was set up in 1995 comprising the refugee coordinator and two others. They are all volunteers. The office is located at the section's secretariat in Koforidua. No local group is yet working on refugee issues or cases.

Since refugees in the West African sub-region move in masses, work on refugee policy issues through government lobbying is a priority. An example are the Liberian refugees aboard the ship "Challenger" who were reluctantly offered asylum in Ghana in June 1996.

Refugee camps are being visited in order to get a better insight into practices of reception and repatriation.

The refugee team is hardly involved in individual case work, but individual cases of two Nigerians referred to the section by al-Nigeria are currently handled by the team. The section does not respond to requests for detailed background information related to claims of Ghanaian asylum-seekers which the section receives from attorneys and others from countries outside of Africa, and in particular Western Europe and North America. The reason for this is that the section has doubts about the identity of the originators of these requests.

The refugee team has a good relationship with the Refugee Board in Ghana. which was established in 1995, and the Ghanaian Branch Office of UNHCR.

The team is faced with serious financial difficulties as no provision for refugee work has been made in the section's budget. Projects are being developed for funding the evolving refugee programme of the section.


SWISS SECTION

In the Swiss Section the refugee coordinator, who has been on the job for a number of years, is situated in the section's central office in Bern. His responsibilities also include some lobby and intergovernmental organization work on subjects such as the OSCE and in particular UN institutiQns located in Geneva. He is normally assisted for periods of 6 or 12 months by a full-time vQluniteer. Ihere is no membership structure dealing with refugee cases in the section; all caisi eis are channelled through the Bern office. There is a national exp~rt committee advising the refugee coQrdinator on policy questions.
A substantial part of the refugee work is relatedito indjyidual;casesi; a~lliin all there are about i350 inquiries a ~ ~~q~irifligi different amoiur~ts of work and attentibn. Ini some cases it is isufficient to provide al exteirnal country information, other causes ~~iqui~~ more research,
which is either undertaken at the Swiss section or with the help of research staff at the IS. Inquiries are normally received from the asylum-seekers, lawyers or refugee support groups and information or letters of support are provided to them. Only very few requests for information are received from decision-making bodies or government institutions.
A decision whether to take up a case is based on the al mandate and the status of the case in the national procedure. al does not normally get involved before a (negative) first instance decision has been taken and would then support a case on appeal. al would normally refrain from involvement with "lost cases", where there are no more legal challenges available.
In making assessments and providing information the refugee department uses the section's documentation and refugee specific information from sources outside of Af. There is an electronic data-base of al and non-al information presently consisting of,some 500 documents. Decision-making authorities, government offices and others can and do subscribe to al external information (in English, French or German).
The section has a good working relationship with UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. Experiences with the IS are mixed. While some research teams do answer in a timely manner providing valuable information, others do not. In general, though, the refugee coordinator feels in a position to obtain the information needed for his work in one way ~r another.


UNITED KINGDOM SECTION

The Refugee Office in the UK Section consists of 2 full-time staff and a part-time volunteer. There are also 15 groups spread all over the country working on refugee and asylum policy issues (not cases).

The Section does only very little work on individual cases; less than 50 cases a year are being handled by the Refugee Office. If the office does get involved with individual cases, than it is with really strong cases only. The office would then write letters of support addressed to the lawyers handling these cases. (Under UK law legal aid is being granted until the preparation of an appeal.) A number of cases are referred from the IS to al UK. The division of work between alUK and the IS is not always clear, in particular when IS research teams are involved with the cases of individual asylum-seekers for research purposes.

Dealing with queries from lawyers and the media in high-profile cases and information requests takes more than 1/3 of staff time spent. The Refugee Office mns an information subscription service for lawyers, agencies, government authorities, etc. The subscription rate is £200 for lawyers, £100 for agencies and free of charge for the government, UNHCR, etc. Under this scheme al reports on some 47 refugee producing countries are mailed out every two weeks to recipients (in addition to the Annual Report). also, a monthly Refugee Bulletin is produced in order to service legal representatives of asylum-seekers. It is based bn~research information supplied by the IS but which may not be available in the form of published reports. The bulletin contains up-to-date short entries on a number of refugee producing countries. In addition, the Refugee Office produces information catalogues on critical countries (such as Nigeria) containing details of al reports on the country available from the alUK Refugee Office. The catalogue lists bibliopraphical information (title of report, date of publication, number of pages, price) and a summary of the contents of the report. Orders must be in writing and payment must be enclosed with all orders.

Work on UK asylum policy and legislation is a priority for the Refugee Office. There is a clear focus on policy work and campaigning irather than work oni individual cases. The section tries to influence poiliticiians~ and decision-makers, the medi~ an~ public opinion. In order to do so, the Refugee Office researches and writes booklets on subjects such as the practice in "safe third country" a;sylum cases i?ndiithe detention of asylum-seekers. The latest (April 1996) 5~~p~g~i publication is entitled: "Slamming the Door: The Demolition of the Right to Asylum in the UK~i. There is alsp great interest in asy~um issues in the membership. A pilot project involving groups in an action network on asylum policy matters has been started.