A UNHCR-commissioned report examines how the Swedish Migration Agency conducts refugee status determination of Afghans after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021.
© UNHCR/Oxygen Film Studio (AFG)
The Swedish Refugee Law Center has launched the report “Refugee status determination at first instance – one year after the Taliban take-over in Afghanistan” (”Flyktingskapsbedömningar i första instans – ett år efter talibanernas maktövertagande i Afghanistan”). The report, provides an analysis of some 100 decisions issued by the Swedish Migration Agency in the period of June to August 2022 with regard to asylum applications made by Afghan nationals in Sweden.
The new report is commissioned by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the aim is to review the legal reasoning of the Swedish Migration Agency, the use of ‘country of origin’-information, and how UNHCR recommendations and guidelines, EU law, case-law and jurisprudence are implemented in decisions on asylum applications.
While it is positive that the Swedish Migration Agency is undertaking a quality review of its decisions on Afghan asylum claims, the report finds that the ‘country of origin’-information used in several decisions is not fully up to-date, sufficiently corroborated or relevant to the case. The report also notes that some 40% of the examined decisions were expulsion decisions, including of women and families with children.
The report further concludes that the Swedish Migration Agency does not heed to UNHCR’s call on States to suspend the issuance of decisions to individual applicants in cases where it cannot be determined that the person in question is a refugee, nor is UNHCR guidance referred to in the decisions.
As UNHCR expressed in its Guidance Note of February 2022, the conditions in Afghanistan remain highly unpredictable with widespread concerns about targeted violence and human rights violations. Furthermore, the current situation in the country poses a number of obstacles to the gathering of comprehensive information concerning the human rights situation in different parts of the country. UNHCR therefore considers that presently it is not possible to determine with the necessary degree of certainty that an Afghan asylum-seeker is not in need of international refugee protection. UNHCR is therefore concerned that the Swedish Migration Agency has not suspended its decision-making in cases where it cannot be determined that the applicant is a refugee.
In conclusion, the report makes eleven recommendations to the Swedish Migration Agency. This includes the recommendation to use up-to-date and relevant country of origin information as well as to interpret and apply the 1951 Refugee Convention in an age, gender and diversity sensitive manner.
It is UNHCR’s hope that the report from the Swedish Refugee Law Center will contribute to a continued dialogue with relevant stakeholders, including the Swedish Migration Agency, to strengthen the asylum process.
Find the report here (in Swedish)
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