Governance and Politics

Is My Claim Meritorious? Congolese Experience of the Refugee Status Determination Process in Kenya

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Every human being has the right to seek and receive asylum. However to receive asylum

one has to go through a process called Refugee Status Determination (RSD). An asylum seeker cannot enjoy all refugee rights unless he/she is confirmed as a refugee through the RSD process.

It is the responsibility of governments of host states to conduct the RSD process. However, some governments are either unable or unwilling to conduct the RSD process. In such instances, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) often

steps in to fill this gap. This study was conducted in Kenya because Kenya at the time was among the countries in which RSD was being conducted by UNHCR. The Government did not have the technical capacity to conduct RSD processes by itself from the time it started receiving refugees in the late 1980s. In 2013, it recruited RSD officers through the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA) aiming to gradually take over the process from UNHCR. In the course of providing legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, RCK received numerous complaints on rejected RSD applications from asylum seekers from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This led RCK to partner with the Danish Refugee Council Great Lakes Civil Society Project (GLP) to conduct a study to determine the reasons for these rejections.

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: Refugee Consortium of Kenya., 2014

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English

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