UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency

Safe at Last? - New UNHCR Report on Law and Practice in EU M.S. for asylum seekers fleeing indiscriminate violence

18 January 2012

In July 2011, UNHCR released a research publication, Safe at Last? Law and Practice in Selected EU member States with respect to asylum seekers fleeing indiscriminate violence. The broad objective of this research was to investigate the extent to which implementation of the Qualification Directive delivers international protection to persons fleeing situations of indiscriminate violence, and to ascertain whether a protection gap exists.This Directive sets out two distinct but complementary statuses of international protection, namely refugee status derived from the 1951 Convention and subsidiary protection status for persons at real risk of serious harm as defined in Article 15 of the Qualification Directive. EU Member States were required to transpose the Qualification Directive into national legislation by October 2006.

One of the main aims of the Qualification Directive is “to ensure that Member States apply common criteria for the identification of persons genuinely in need of international protection.” However, several years after entry into force of the Directive, UNHCR and partners have regularly expressed concern that Afghans, Iraqis and Somalis in need of protection were not receiving it, and that the Directive was not being applied in a consistent manner.

Even allowing for variations in the profile of asylum-seekers arriving in the six Member States considered in the research, it is evident that there are broad differences in the application of the international protection provisions of the Qualification Directive. This research seeks to understand why this is the case, and to contribute to a more consistent application of the Qualification Directive across the EU in order, in line with UNHCR’s global mandate, to ensure international protection for those in need of it.

Specifically, the research sought to gather information on the extent to which six Member States’ interpretation and application of Article 15 (c) of the Qualification Directive address the protection needs of persons fleeing indiscriminate violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.

Since the end of the Second World War, there have been more than 400 armed conflicts around the world, taking an estimated 100 million lives - approximately the number of World Wars I and II combined. Many of the casualties have been civilians. Millions of others have been displaced both within and across borders due to conflict. The moral and legal imperative for the international community to provide protection to persons in need is therefore as strong as ever.

Read a copy of the report here (pdf)