Refugee Law and Policy In Selected Countries

In March 2016 the Global Legal Research Center of the Law Library of Congress released a report entitled Refugee Law and Policy in Selected Countries.  The report looks at refugee and asylum-seeker law and policy in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The report begins with a comparative summary describing the topics covered: "participation  in  relevant  international  conventions; laws and regulations governing the admission of refugees and handling refugee claims; processes for  handling  refugees  arriving  at  the  border;  procedures for  evaluating  whether  an  applicant  is  entitled  to  refugee  status;  the  accommodations  and  assistance  provided  to  refugees  in  the  jurisdiction; requirements  for  naturalization;  and  whether  asylum  policy  has  been  affected  by  international  emergencies,  such  as  the  current refugee  crisis  in  Europe." The report ends with an extensive bibliography of selected recent English-language materials.

GAO Report About Asylum Application Fraud

On Dec. 2, 2015 the General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report entitled Asylum: Additional Actions Needed to Assess and Address Fraud Risks. The following provides reasons why the GAO did this study citing the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the DOJ (Department of Justice).

GAO was asked to review the status of the asylum system. This report addresses (1) what DHS and DOJ data indicate about trends in asylum claims, (2) the extent to which DHS and DOJ have designed mechanisms to prevent and detect asylum fraud, and (3) the extent to which DHS and DOJ designed and implemented processes to address any asylum fraud that has been identified. GAO analyzed DHS and DOJ data on asylum applications for fiscal years 2010 through 2014, reviewed DHS and DOJ policies and procedures related to asylum fraud, and interviewed DHS and DOJ officials in Washington, D.C., Falls Church, VA, and in asylum offices and immigration courts across the country selected on the basis of application data and other factors.


GAO recommended:

... that DHS and DOJ conduct regular fraud risk assessments and that DHS, among other things, implement tools for detecting fraud patterns, develop asylum-specific guidance for fraud detection roles and responsibilities, and implement timeliness goals for pending termination reviews.