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Important news from EUAA and the world of COI

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The News section aims to inform users about recent COI publications or upcoming workshops/conferences. EUAA selects information provided in the News section according to its relevance to the COI and asylum fields. EUAA welcomes suggestions to insert a particular news (event, publication).

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23 December 2019

EASO publishes a COI report: Syria - Actors

Today, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) Report titled Syria: Actors. This report is part of a series of Syria reports produced in 2019-2020. These reports cover actors of protection, internal mobility, key socio-economic indicators, and targeting of individuals. The reports provide information relevant for international protection status determination for Syrian asylum seekers and will be used in the development of a country guidance note on Syria.

Syrians continued to be the top citizenship applying for asylum in the EU+ uninterruptedly since 2013, although the number of applications lodged between January and September 2019 (some 51 200) was lower than in the same period in 2018 (about 57 000). Three in every four Syrian applications (almost 75 %) were lodged in four EU+ countries.

Syrian applicants also received more first-instance decisions than any other citizenship group. Since the beginning of 2019, Syrian applicants received some 58 300 decisions. Syria was also the country of origin whose nationals had the most cases pending at first instance in the EU+. At the end of September 2019, there were some 44 600 Syrian applications awaiting a first-instance decision, some 80 % of which were pending in just five EU+ countries.

The report, EASO COI Report: Syria – Actors, aims to provide relevant information regarding the main actors in Syria for the assessment of international protection status determination, including refugee status and subsidiary protection, and in particular to inform the EASO country guidance development on Syria.

The report was drafted by the EASO COI sector with research contributions from the COI unit of the Romanian General Inspectorate for Immigration, Ministry of Internal Affairs, as referred to in the acknowledgments section in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology, and was reviewed by COI experts from Austria. Additionally, external expert reviews were carried out by ACCORD, and by Aron Lund, fellow at the Century Foundation and guest researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Additional information to complement this report can be found in the following EASO report:

 

 

  • Syrian Arab Republic

11 November 2019

EASO publishes COI report on the security situation in Syria

Today, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) Report titled Syria: Security situation. This report is part of a series of Syria reports produced in 2019-2020. These reports cover actors of protection, internal mobility, key socio-economic indicators, and targeting of individuals. The reports provide information relevant for international protection status determination for Syrian asylum seekers and will be used in the development of a country guidance note on Syria.

Syrians continued to be the top citizenship applying for asylum in the EU+ uninterruptedly since 2013, although the number of applications lodged between January and September 2019 (some 51 200) was lower than in the same period in 2018 (about 57 000). Three in every four Syrian applications (almost 75 %) were lodged in four EU+ countries.

Syrian applicants also received more first-instance decisions than any other citizenship group. Since the beginning of 2019, Syrian applicants received some 58 300 decisions. Syria was also the country of origin whose nationals had the most cases pending at first instance in the EU+. At the end of September 2019, there were some 44 600 Syrian applications awaiting a first-instance decision, some 80 % of which were pending in just five EU+ countries.

The report, EASO COI Report: Syria – Security situation, aims to provide information on aspects of the security situation. The report focuses in particular on the impact of the security situation for the civilian population during 2018 and first half of 2019. Limited information documenting significant developments to the security situation that occurred in October 2019 is also included.

The report was drafted by the Country of Origin Information (COI) specialists on Syria from Norway (Landinfo) together with EASO COI sector, as referred to in the acknowledgments section in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology, and was reviewed by COI experts from the Denmark. Additionally, an external expert review was carried out by ACCORD.

10_2019_Syria_security_situation.jpg

  • Syrian Arab Republic

05 November 2019

Notice - Down time due to planned maintenance - Friday (8/11 from 18:00) to Saturday (9/11 until 15:00)

Kindly note that this Friday (8/11) from 18:00 until Saturday (9/11) at 15:00, there will be scheduled down time due to planned maintenance window, during which EASO COI Portal will be inaccessible.

We appriciate your patience and understanding.

EASO COI Portal Team 

30 October 2019

EASO publishes COI report on the security situation in Pakistan

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Today, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) Report entitled 'Pakistan security situation'. The report is the fourth update of the security chapter of the EASO COI report on Pakistan, Country Overview, published in August 2015[1] subsequently updated in July 2016, August 2017 and October 2018.

In 2018, the country ranked 4th in the top countries of origin in the EU+ countries,[2] but the total number of Pakistani applicants decreased, from about 32 000 in 2017 to about 29 000 applications. By the end of 2018, the total number of pending cases at all instances decreased to some 44 000.

The EASO COI Report Pakistan security situation provides a general description of the security situation in Pakistan, covering the following topics: an overview of recent conflicts in the country; actors in the conflict; an overview of recent security trends and armed confrontations; the impact of the violence on the civilian population; and the impact of the violence on the state ability to secure law and order.

The second part of the report provides an overview of the security situation in a more detailed description of the different regions in Pakistan. In each regional chapter, a short description is given of the region, the background of the violence as well as the actors present in the region, followed by a description of the security trends, and the impact of the violence on the population.

The report was drafted by the Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and  Stateless Persons (Cedoca, Centre for Documentation and Research) in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology. It was reviewed by experts from Austria (Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, Country of Origin Information Department), the Netherlands (Immigration and Naturalization Service, Office for Country Information and Language Analysis), Poland (Country of Origin Information Unit, Department for Refugee Procedures, Office for Foreigners), Sweden (Swedish Migration Agency, Section for Information Analysis), ACCORD (Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation) and EASO, in order to ensure the highest quality.

It is EASO's intention to continue to produce such reports on important countries of origin and to update them on a regular basis in order to raise and harmonise COI standards in the EU and to further support the practical implementation of the Common European Asylum System.

The report can be downloaded from: https://coi.easo.europa.eu/administration/easo/PLib/2019_10_EASO_COI_Report_Pakistan_Security_situation.pdf

 

[1] All reports are available via EASO's website: https://www.easo.europa.eu/information-analysis/country-origin-information/country-reports

[2] EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland

  • Pakistan