Country of Origin Information (COI) Experts
Scroll down for other sources of Country of Origin Information.
Country of Origin Information experts have achieved the years of academic and practical experience about a particular country that qualifies their COI information to provide supporting objective evidence on a claim for refugee status. The Country of Origin Information experts listed below have agreed to work pro bono for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which do not charge refugees for legal services.
Lawyers representing refugee claims may write about a case to persons listed on the country pages to ensure their expertise is relevant to your case and to agree on their working arrangements. The recommended COI specialists have filed their curriculum vitae with us and have agreed to work on cases with lawyers on a confidential basis. The Fahamu Refugee Programme cannot not assume responsibility for the quality of their work.
Please see the training document on "Researching Country of Origin Information" that could be useful to some academics who have no experience in writing declarations on behalf of asylum seekers. . It includes all the relevant refugee laws for those of you who may need background on the 1951 Convention and other legal matters pertinent to refugees. There are also links to declarations or expert opinions published by various organisations that you can easily access. You can find the document and download it as a pdf file here: http://www.coi-training.net/content/doc/en-COI%20Manual%20Part%20I%20plus%20Annex%2020060426.pdf
We do not have COI specialists for all countries. Should you be willing to be a COI specialist, please contact info[at]fahamu.org, Subject Line: 'COI offered'.
Adapted from the UN World Macro Regions.
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS)
http://cgrs.uchastings.edu/assistance/
200 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: (415) 581-8836
Fax: (415) 581-8824
The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) has resources for women seeking asylum on account of domestic violence, including country conditions information on DV in Honduras and an expert declaration on DV in Honduras. If you would like to receive a copy of this information, please fill out a request for information on our website and we will respond shortly.
we provide all resources at no cost.
We have country conditions information and advisory materials for a number of other countries and topics, especially information regarding gender-based violence, persecution of LGBT individuals, and children.
We cover anywhere and everywhere, although our resources regarding DV and violence against women in Mexico and Central America are the most extensive.
We have information packets for over 100 countries and with 4-6 weeks’ notice are happy to produce new packets for specific cases concerning gender, LGBT, or children’s issues. In addition to those packets, we have general expert declarations regarding DV in Mexico, violence against indigenous women in Mexico, DV in Guatemala, DV in Honduras, DV in El Salvador, violence against women generally in El Salvador, one on FGC generally, and one on incest.
If you have a case for which you are in need of assistance, please feel free to submit a request at the above URL and we will share with you anything that may be of help.
RefWorld
RefWorld is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status. Refworld contains a vast collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. The information has been carefully selected and compiled from UNHCR's global network of field offices, Governments, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and judicial bodies.
UK Border Agency’s Country of Origin Information Service
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/policyandlaw/guidance/coi/
The Country of Origin Information Service (COI Service) provides up-to-date, sourced, independently reviewed information on asylum seekers' countries of origin. Sources include UN reports, human rights reports, various media bodies and information from specialist country officers, amongst others. COI material produced by UKBA is reviewed by the independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI). If you have any comments or suggestions on any COI Service products, you can send them to:UKBApublicenquiries[at]ukba.gsi.gov.uk.
Do consult Asylum Research Consultancy (www.asylumresearchconsultancy.com) for critiques of UK Border Agency's COI report and beware, UK Border Agency's report often are out-of-date as are many such sources.
The European Country of Origin Information Network
ecoi.net collects information on the situation in countries of origin of asylum seekers with a focus on the needs of asylum lawyers, refugee counsels and persons deciding on claims for asylum and other forms of international protection. Since February 2008, the search engine on ecoi.net automatically includes English and German synonyms and near synonyms of search terms.
Le site www.ecoi.net du Réseau européen d’information sur les pays d’origine, a une nouvelle interface de recherche.
El sitio www.ecoi.net de la Red europea de informaciones sobre los países de originen, a un novel interface de búsqueda.
The US Department of State Human Rights Report
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/index.htm
Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation – Austrian Red Cross
www.roteskreuz.at/i18n/en/organise/accord/
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
The IRB has a wealth of material on their website on all manner of things dealing with their work, including Research and Country of Origin Information. At present, they are redesigning their online research applications but eventually these will be freely available to all. They have a number of offices across Canada and can be contacted info [at] irb-cisr [dot] gc [dot] ca (via Email).
Electronic Immigration Network
The Electronic Immigration Network [EIN] provides information on UK immigration and refugee law. The site comprises of two main areas: the Public Site (free) and the Members’ Site (at a charge). The Public Site gives access to country of origin experts, news and information on the latest legislation and most recent case law, event listings and a general resources list which links to related sites.
The directory of Country of Origin Experts is available here: http://www.ein.org.uk/experts/country.shtml. It is accessible to all. However, we have no way of knowing if these listed experts are willing to do this work without charge. You should contact them directly and explain your situation where you are unable to pay.
The Members’ Site (fee-paying) contains case law, legislation, updates on policy
and practice, information on events, job information and bulletin boards that enable users to consult with and contact fellow practitioners. A forum allows access to immigration and asylum-related decisions from the AIT up to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Asylum Research Consultancy (ARC)
www.asylumresearchconsultancy.com
Email: info [at] asylumresearchconsultancy [dot] com (info[at]asylumresearchconsultancy.com)
Contact Persons: Liz Williams, Stephanie Huber
Asylum Research Consultancy (ARC) provides a case-specific country of origin information (COI) research service to support individual asylum claims for use in representations to the UK Border Agency (UKBA), the UK Immigration and Asylum Chambers and to international refugee decision making bodies. This service is primarily fee-paying, but ARC may be able to undertake pro bono COI research for NGOs with limited funds who provide free services to refugees.
ARC also undertakes research, advocacy and training to improve the quality of refugee status determination. ARC has been commissioned by the UK-based Still Human Still Here Coalition to twice review the COI content of 11 Operational Guidance Notes (OGNs) during 2011 and 2012 and delivered 10 training sessions to legal representatives on ‘How to Challenge the Conclusions Reached in UKBA's OGNs Using Country of Origin Information’. ARC was also appointed to review the COI content of the UKBA COI Report on The Gambia on behalf of the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI). ARC also produces a free bi-monthly COI Update, which provides notification of new UK Country Guidance cases, new UKBA COI publications and developments.
International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict. They provide regular and reliable updates and reports on countries in conflict situations. It is also available in French and in Arabic and some reports are available in other languages.
Still Human Still Here
http://stillhumanstillhere.wordpress.com/
17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA
Tel: 020 7033 1600
e-mail: mike.kaye[at]amnesty.org.uk
Still Human Still Here is a broad coalition of organisations that are campaigning together to bring to an end the destitution of refused asylum seekers in the UK by improving the quality of the decision making process, extending asylum support and healthcare until the time of departure from the UK or their grant of leave to remain and granting asylum seekers permission to work if their cases have not been resolved in six months or if they have been refused but cannot be returned through no fault of their own.
The Resource section (http://stillhumanstillhere.wordpress.com/resources/) contains the latest briefings and reports from the asylum sector including commentaries on UKBA COI Operational Guidance Notes. These commentaries aim to be a tool to allow legal representatives to identify relevant country of origin information and point to potential inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the use of country of origin information and case law in the OGNs.
