EU Membership Questionnaire Contains Asylum Process

PM Garibashvili meets with Carl Hartzell to hand over the EU Questionnaire's Second Part. Photo: Georgian Government's Press Office

Georgia Submitted  the second part of the EU membership questionnaire on May 10. This part contains several questions about asylum process so we can expect improvement in this field.

These are list of questions in EU  Questionnaire for Georgia:

Q. Please provide information on legislation or other rules governing the asylum policy. 

Q. Describe the asylum procedure at first and second instances: a) Normal, exceptional (for instance border) and accelerated procedures; b) Provide number and types of appeals during the last five years; c) Explain which bodies are competent for each type of appeal possible to make use of; d) Provide assessment of the average duration of the procedures; e) Identification of services involved and number of staff dedicated to asylum procedures; f) Methodology for gathering country of origin information. 

Q. Is any of the following concepts applied, and if yes, how? a) Safe third country; 162 b) Safe country of origin; c) Manifestly unfounded claims. 

Q. Describe the procedural guarantees for asylum applicants: a) Information provision, interview, right to counsel and representation, interpretation/translation; b) Independence of review and appeal procedures; c) Specific procedural guarantees applicable for unaccompanied minors. d) Measures for vulnerable applicants. 

Q. What concept of protection is applied in Georgia? a) How are the five grounds in article 1A and the exclusion clauses of Article 1F of the 1951 Geneva Convention (GC) applied? b) Are non-state agents of persecution included in the understanding of the refugee definition of Article 1A GC? c) Are subsidiary protection(s) or other forms of humanitarian protection in place? d) Is there a temporary protection system to deal with mass influx of displaced persons? 

Q. What are the services competent for the application of provisions for determining the State responsible for the examination of an asylum application and for recording and processing the fingerprints of asylum seekers in this connection (with a view to possible future implementation of the Dublin III and Eurodac-regulations)? 

Q. Describe the registration and identification (including IT) systems for asylum applicants. 

Q. Describe the system of reception conditions for asylum applicants, including distribution in reception centres/ financial allowances to ensure an adequate standard of living for applicants. Please explain what is the mechanism of referral (e.g. to child protection authorities in the case of unaccompanied minors), safeguards and guarantees for vulnerable persons, including minors in reception centres and in case detention measures are applied. 

Q. Describe the framework for cooperation with UNHCR, IOM, UNICEF and NGOs. 

Q. Describe the system put in place to collect data and statistics on asylum and refugee movements. 

Q. Describe the activities related to practical cooperation with other countries that the asylum authorities are engaged in (for instance: exchange of country of origin information, organisation of seminars, study visits, etc.)