Decisions
Provisional figures indicate that States and UNHCR
rendered more than 1.18 million decisions on individual asylum applications during 2015 Table 4 .43 These
figures do not include cases closed for administrative
reasons with no decision issued to applicants,44 of
which over 1 million were reported to UNHCR in 2015.
Hungary and Serbia and Kosovo: S/RES/1244 (1999)
accounted for 730,500 of these closed cases due to
many individuals applying for asylum and soon after
leaving to other European countries.
UNHCR staff adjudicated 91,800 or 8 per cent of
the total substantive decisions, a decrease from the
high of 99,600 in 2014. Data relating to individual decisions are incomplete, however, as a few States have
not yet released all of their official statistics. Thus, additional substantive decisions are likely to have been
taken by States in 2015 but are not reported here.
Based on the available data, some 672,200
asylum-seekers were recognized as refugees
(428,800) or given a complementary form of protection (243,400) during 2015. This is a relatively
small increase from 2014, when 615,000 asylumseekers were recognized as refugees or given a
complementary form of protection. In contrast,
about 491,900 claims were rejected on substantive
grounds, a number that includes negative decisions
both at the first instance and on appeal. Asylumseekers rejected at both first and appeal instances
may be reported twice, depending on the methods
used by governments for reporting decisions on
individual asylum applications.
At the global level (UNHCR and State asylum procedures combined), the Refugee Recognition Rate
(RRR) was an estimated 37 per cent of all substantive decisions taken during 2015, whereas the Total
Recognition Rate (TRR) was 57 per cent. While the
RRR was significantly higher than in 2014 (27%),
the TRR was about the same (59%), although this
latter figure is still higher than the historical trend
since 2000 Figure 18 . The 2014 numbers were influenced by the particularly large numbers of Ukrainian
Table 4 Substantive decisions taken | 2012-2015
2012
2013
2014
2015
Total
627,200
54,400
18,200
699,800
590,200
72,100
500
662,800
941,800
99,600
4,400
1,045,800
1,086,000
91,800
6,400
1,183,700
% UNHCR only
8%
11%
10%
8%
States
UNHCR
Jointly
asylum-seekers given temporary protection in the
Russian Federation. Meanwhile, the increasing
numbers of asylum-seekers from the Syrian Arab
Republic, who have higher RRRs than those originating from other countries, are partly responsible
for the TRR remaining high in 2015 despite the decrease in asylum-seekers from Ukraine in the Russian
Federation. At this time, global recognition rates are
indicative, as some States have not yet reported the
relevant data.
Among asylum-seekers from countries where
more than 1,000 individual applications were made,
those originating from the Syrian Arab Republic,
South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Yemen,
Ukraine, Burundi, Iraq, Myanmar, Eritrea, Somalia,
and the State of Palestine had TRRs of 85 per cent
or more. In contrast, TRRs were particularly low for
asylum-seekers from the former Yugoslavia, including Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo: S/RES/1244 (1999),
and Bosnia and Herzegovina (below 4%). Other
Fig.18 Global Total Recognition Rates | 2000-2015
Total recognition rate (per cent)
compared to 2014. However, all figures in this section
should be considered indicative, because the country of origin for some asylum-seekers is unknown or
undisclosed by some States.
60
50
40
30
20
10
43 Refers to decisions taken at all levels in the asylum procedure.
14
15
20
20
12
20
10
20
08
20
06
20
04
20
02
20
00
0
20
44 Also referred to as ‘non-substantive’ decisions, which may
result from the death of the applicant, no-show for interview,
withdrawal of the application, abandonment of the claim, or the
determination that another country is responsible for the claim
(‘Dublin II’ procedure), among other factors.
UNHCR Global Trends 2015 43