COI News

The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) Report entitled ‘Pakistan security situation’. The report is the third update of the security chapter of the EASO COI report on Pakistan, Country Overview, published in August 2015, subsequently updated in July 2016 and August 2017. The report provides information relevant for the protection status determination of Pakistani asylum seekers.

In 2017, Pakistan ranked in the top 5 of countries of origin in the EU+ countries, with a total number of about 32,000 applicants. By the end of 2017, more than 47,000 cases remained pending at all instances. Throughout 2018, the country maintained this ranking in the top countries of origin and the total number of Pakistani applicants has remained stable.

The EASO COI Report ‘Pakistan security situation’ provides a general description of the security situation in Pakistan, covering the following topics: an overview of the 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 main findings of the report include an overall decrease in total numbers of violent incidents and casualties throughout 2017 and 2018. However, security operations and armed clashes were still reported in all four provinces of Pakistan and in the FATA in the context of operation Radd-Ul-Fasaad. Militant groups also continued to conduct attacks in 2017 and 2018, including suicide attacks, targeted killings, and sectarian-related violence. In the run-up to the general elections held in July 2018, several violent incidents and some major attacks occurred throughout the country.

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 the Office for Country Information and Language Analysis in the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Immigration and Asylum Office Documentation Centre in the Hungarian Office of Immigration and Nationality, the Department of Documentation and Foreign Cooperation in the Slovakian Migration Office, Lifos, the Centre for Country of Origin Information and Analysis in the Swedish Migration 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 at: https://coi.easo.europa.eu/administration/easo/PLib/2018_10_EASO_COI_Report_Pakistan_Security_situation.pdf