Chapter 4
Table 3 | New and appeal applications registered
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
States
747,600 755,400
796,700
877,800
UNHCR
96,800
98,800
125,500
Jointly**
5,900
28,600
20,100
Total
UNHCR only
2016
2017
1,401,700 2,050,000
1,914,200
1,617,200 1,902,500
2,170,400 14,233,500
203,200
245,700
269,400
208,400
263,400
227,800
120,400
1,859,400
800
12,900
17,800
26,300
24,300
11,400
1,300
149,400
850,300 882,800 942,300 1,081,800
1,660,300
11%
11%
13%
19%
15%
2015
2,337,200 2,148,900 1,904,900
12%
10%
14%
2018
2019*
Total
2,141,700 2,292,100 16,242,300
11%
5%
11%
* Provisional figure
** Refers to refugee status determination conducted jointly by UNHCR and governments.
Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iraq and other places –
ensuring efficient status determination processes
became critical. The number of individual RSD
applications (including appeal and reopened
applications) rose from 850,300 in 2010 to
2.3 million in 2019. In 2019, close to 1.3 million
substantive decisions were made globally. But
despite investments by States and UNHCR in
decision-making capacity, the end of 2019 saw more
than 4.1 million cases pending (350,400 in UNHCR
mandate RSD procedures, 1,900 in joint procedures
and 3.8 million in government procedures).
The number of new applications made to
UNHCR also increased throughout the decade,
from 96,800 in 2010 to 227,800 in 2018, with
UNHCR conducting the most RSD in Turkey.
In 2019, the number dropped to 120,400
after UNHCR’s phase-out from RSD in Turkey
following the assumption of full responsibility
by the Government of Turkey in September
2018. Over the past decade, UNHCR issued
over 723,000 substantive (positive or negative)
decisions globally and closed 602,900
administratively. In addition to Turkey, the other
countries where UNHCR processed the highest
number of RSD applications included Malaysia,
Jordan, Egypt, India and Kenya (prior to the
government assuming responsibility). Between
2010 and 2019, UNHCR and States operating
joint procedures received 149,400 applications
and issued 55,000 substantive decisions.
In response to such high numbers and in
acknowledgement that, unlike recognition by a
State, UNHCR’s recognition of refugee status
does not automatically give an individual access to
protection or solutions, UNHCR emphasized two
key elements in its 2016 RSD strategy, in addition
44
to supporting the assumption of responsibility by
States: (1) focusing RSD interventions to situations
in which they will have maximum protection
impact (e.g. facilitating access to protection and
solutions for the most vulnerable individuals
or improve the protection space for entire
populations) and (2) reducing the time spent on
cases while maintaining the quality of decisions.
Due to this rationalization of when UNHCR
conducts RSD under its mandate, the number of
decisions made by UNHCR has varied over the
last decade. Rather than increasing each year, it
peaked in the years 2014-2017, in part because
of the high number of Iraqi and Syrian cases
processed for RSD for resettlement purposes in
the Middle East during this period.
When conducting RSD under its mandate
is necessary, UNHCR has increasingly used
differentiated case processing modalities,
including various types of simplified RSD, merged
registration and RSD and, in a process unique to
UNHCR, a combination of RSD and resettlement
processing. In the past decade, UNHCR has
systematized the use of these procedures,
and issued publicly available documentation
about its processes to ensure transparency and
accountability.
Wrongful rejections could have dire consequences
for applicants. Therefore, it is essential to
have fair asylum procedures. In 2003, the first
version of the Procedural Standards for RSD
under UNHCR’s mandate standardized due
process requirements.55 Since then, UNHCR
has continued working to improve the fairness
55 See: https://www.refworld.org/docid/42d66dd84.html
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019