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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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14 July 2021

EASO publishes a COI report: Syria – Security situation

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 COI reports produced in 2021. The reports provide information relevant for international protection status determination for Syrian applicants, and in particular for use in updating EASO's country guidance development on Syria.

The report, EASO COI Report: Syria – Security situation, analyses the security situation in Syria, focusing in particular on the situation of the civilian population. It provides an overview of the armed conflicts in Syria, information on the main parties to the conflict and a governorate-level description of the security situation. The reference period is 2020 and the first three months of 2021. The report is an update of the EASO COI Report: Syria – Security situation (May 2020).

The report was drafted by the EASO COI Sector together with researchers from the Finish Immigration Service, in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology. The report was reviewed by the Netherlands, Office for Country Information and Language Analysis. Additionally, ACCORD, the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation and the Asylum Research Centre (ARC) conducted external reviews.

Syria remains the top country of origin of asylum applicants in the EU+. In April and May 2021, Syrians lodged some 6 500 and 6 300 applications[i] for international protection in the EU+, respectively. While this was about in line with pre-pandemic levels, it represented a decrease from early 2021. In particular, it was more than a third below the over 10 000 monthly applications lodged in the first two months of the year. However, this decrease was driven by considerably fewer repeated applications in the same country: from almost 5 000 in January and February 2021 down to below 300 in May 2021. In fact, the number of first-time applications in April and May actually exceeded those of January and February 2021. The level of Syrian first-time applications has actually remained relatively stable since July 2020, fluctuating between some 5 100 and 6 500. The overall number of Syrian pending cases at first instance, some 45 100 at the end of May 2021, decreased by almost a fifth from the peak in February 2021, but was still clearly above the numbers recorded between April and December of last year.

The EU+ recognition rate for Syrians so far in 2021 was unusually low, at only 55 %, compared to 85 % in the previous five months (August – December 2020). This was due to the extraordinarily high number of decisions taken on repeated applications in March and April 2021, almost all of which were rejected.



[i] Based on provisional EASO Early warning and Preparedness System (EPS) data.

Syria_Security_Situation_cover photo.jpg


  • Syrian Arab Republic

13 July 2021

In June 2021, Belgium's Cedoca-CGRS published COI reports on Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, DRC, Somalia, and Sudan

In June 2021, the Documentation and Research Department (Cedoca) of the Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) had published several COI reports in Dutch, French, and English, on: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Sudan,

The reports can be downloaded on the links below:

COI Focus – Afghanistan – security situation in Kabul city (in English, covering the reporting period from 1 April 2020 to 15 May 2021)

COI Focus - Afghanistan - Security situation in Jalalabad, Behsud and Surkhrod districts (Nangarhar province) (in English, covering the reporting period from 1 February 2020 to 31 May 2021)

COI Focus – Burkina Faso – security situation – addendum (in French, an update of April 2021 COI Focus report, covering the reporting period from 31 March 2021 to 16 June 2021)

COI Focus – Democratic Republic of Congo – the treatment by national authorities of their nationals returning to the country of origin (in French, covering the reporting period from 1 January 2020 to 7 June 2021)

COI Focus – Democratic Republic of Congo - homosexuality (in French, an update of the same title from 31 July 2017 to 10 June 2021)

COI Focus – Somalia – security situation on Mogadishu (in Dutch, covering the reporting period from 1 December 2020 to 6 June 2021)

COI Focus - Sudan – the situation of Darfuri and Nuba outside of their region of origin (in Dutch, covering the reporting period from April 2019 to March 2021) 

  • Afghanistan
  • Burkina Faso
  • Congo (Democratic Republic)
  • Somalia
  • Sudan

12 July 2021

COI reports published in May and June 2021 by the German Federal Office of Migration and Refugees (BAMF)

During May and June 2021, the German Federal Office of Migration and Refugees (BAMF) had published COI reports in German on Vietnam, Iran, China, Ethiopia, Moldavia, and Kirgizstan. The reports are available on the following links:


  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Moldova
  • China
  • Iran
  • Viet Nam
  • Ethiopia

12 July 2021

Erratum - EASO COI report: Nigeria – security situation, version 1.1

After publication of the EASO COI report: Nigeria – security situation report (June 2021) it appeared that a 2020 source used for the report is in fact based on a 2014 source and therefore cannot be considered up-to-date information as required in EASO’s COI report methodology. The source is cited as follows: ‘All states are affected, however some ‘stand out for the sheer regularity, intensity and carnage of the incidents in their areas. These states include, in the North-Central/Middle Belt Region, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Niger.’1 The source similarly refers to a number of southern states, and this information was cited in chapters on Delta, Rivers, and Cross River states. As a consequence, the information was removed, from  Section 1.4.1.1. Herder-farmer conflict (p. 46), the North Central Region (p. 146), as well as from the above mentioned state chapters. 

In addition, the following content-related corrections were made because of incorrect citation: 

  • in Gombe State, section 2.11.2.2, the words ‘national and state security forces’ were removed. 

  • in Ebonyi state, section 2.28.2.1, in the sentence ‘In 2020, 23 civilian fatalities were recorded during cult clashes’, the word ‘civilian‘ was removed. 

  • In Ondo state, section 2.29.2.1, in the sentence ‘Since November 2016, […] there has been no major incident by NDA or any other group in the Niger Delta’, the wording ‘or any other group in the Niger Delta’ was removed. 

 

The corrected report, version 1.1., including the above erratum, can be downloaded from the EASO COI Portal. 


  • Nigeria

08 July 2021

COI reports recently published on the Swedish Migration Agency’s Lifos database

In the first half of 2021, the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) had published in Swedish the following Country of Origin Information reports on: Eritrea (June 2021), Palestine - Gaza (June 2021), Syria (June 2021), Somalia (May 2021), Afghanistan (May 2021) and Libya (March 2021)

The reports can be found on the following links:

Country information: Eritrea – People's Army (version 2.0)

Country information: Palestine - Gaza: Security situation, humanitarian situation and border crossing in Rafah (version 1.1)

Country information: Syrian military service (version 1.0)

Country information: Somalia - security situation 2020 (version 1.2)

Country information: Hazaras in Afghanistan (version 2.0)

Country information: Libya - The security situation and its impact on the civilian population (version 2.0) 


  • Eritrea
  • Palestine
  • Syrian Arab Republic
  • Somalia
  • Afghanistan
  • Libya