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European Organization of Iranian Refugees
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RSD

Refugee status determination (RSD) is the doorway to the protection and assistance that the international community provides to refugees.  In dozens of countries, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) acts as the gatekeeper. UNHCR does this by determining whether an individual asylum-seeker (and in some cases, an entire family) meets the international legal definition of a refugee. In this role, the UN’s refugee agency effectively decides among asylum-seekers who can be saved from deportation and in some cases released from detention, who can get humanitarian assistance, and often who can apply to resettle to third countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and some states in the European Union. In recent years, UNHCR has decided more individual refugee cases than the United States, and in some years more than any government. In legal theory this work is supposed to be done by governments, but in practice UNHCR-RSD is a cornerstone of refugee policy in much of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. UNHCR has been doing this work for decades, nearly since its founding in the early 1950s. The official history of UNHCR RSD can be traced to a November 1951 memorandum by the High Commissioner. But it was largely ignored until recently. Beginning in the 1990s, lawyers and human rights organizations began to take more notice.

UNHCR’s RSD Operations (by number of applications, 2010)

 

State                         

Applications

1

Malaysia

25,632

2

Kenya

19,317

3

Turkey

9,226

4

India

4,026

5

Indonesia

3,905

6

Yemen

3,743

7

Cameroon

3,326

8

Syria

3,219

9

Jordan

2,869

10

Egypt

2,605

11

Lebanon

1,774

12

Libya

1,699

13

Thailand

1,205

14

Pakistan

943

15

Morocco

906

16

Iraq

846

17

Kazakhstan

544

18

Hong Kong

457

19

UAE

438

20

Algeria

432

21

Kuwait

360

22

Kyrgyzstan

297

23

DRC

293

24

Ukraine

277

25

Somalia

246

26

Azerbaijan

192

27

Senegal

188

28

Sudan

182

29

China

164

30

Bahrain

136

31

Sri Lanka

100

32

Iran

67

33

Oman

53

34

Tunisia

53

35

Tajikistan

51

36

Nepal

42

37

Togo

42

38

Afghanistan

39

39

Qatar

37

40

Cyprus

36

41

Saudi Arabia

26

42

Cuba

23

43

Trinidad & Tobago

22

44

Bangladesh

18

45

Belarus

16

46

Curacao

9

47

Suriname

7

48

Armenia

4

49

Cambodia

3

50

Grenada

3

51

Saint Lucia

3

52

St Lucia and St Vincent & the Genadines

3

53

Sint Maarten

3

54

Tonga

3

55

Haiti

1

56

Palau

1

57

Antigua and Barbuda

0

58

Dominica

0

59

Mongolia

0

 


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