The Forced Migration Review (FMR) team at the Refugee Studies Centre collaborated with Professor Cathryn Costello and her team to publish an issue of FMR in November 2020 on ‘Recognising Refugees’.

As the administrative process by which governments or UNHCR determine whether a person seeking international protection is considered a refugee, refugee status determination is a core element of the refugee regime – and the fairness, quality and efficiency of RSD procedures and decision-making obviously have significant implications for the protection and assistance of people of concern. Proposals to externalise asylum determination, for example, have been around for a while, and merit reflection within this topic. However, there are also forms of recognising refugees that fall outside formal RSD that may provide alternative forms of protection. The issue analyses refugee recognition that includes but is not limited to formal RSD and encompasses, among other aspects: registration, access to procedures, prima facie and group determinations and alternative refugee recognition processes, looking particularly at fairness, efficiency and access to procedures.

Pdf version FMR 65 Recognising Refugees