European Asylum Support Office - Newsletter - May 2012 · Mr Claus Folden was born in 1964 in Odense, Denmark. After graduating in Law from the Copenhagen University in 1993, he joined

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EASO - Newsletter - May 2012

European Asylum Support Office - Newsletter - European Asylum Support Office - Newsletter - European Asylum Support Office - Newsletter - European Asylum Support Office - Newsletter - May 2012May 2012May 2012May 2012

Contents Contents Contents Contents - Editorial - P. 1

- In the News - P. 1- Meeting the team- P. 2

- Ask the Executive Director - P. 2- A Common Gateway to COI - P. 3

- EAC - P. 4- EASO in pictures - P. 5

In the News:

EDITORIALWelcome to the May edition of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) newsletter. Apart from providing you with the latest updates regarding EASO’s work, in the month of May we will look into the development of a common Country of Origin Information (COI) web-based entry-point (portal). In this edition we will also introduce you to Mr Claus Folden, Head of Centre for Operational Support.

As to EASO training, with summer just around the corner, the end of EASO’s training semester is getting near. Nevertheless, this month we will look into the second module of the EAC learning path namely, Introduction to EU Asylum Law and Policy. I would also like to kindly remind you that you can send questions to theExecutive Director of EASO by sending an email with your questions to [email protected]

Jean-Pierre SchembriNewsletter EditorEASO Spokesperson

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In the News: Dr Visser ends his tour des capitales with a visit to Portugal, 17/18 May 2012

EASO VacanciesEASO VacanciesEASO VacanciesEASO Vacancies

EASO has recently the following vacancy:

Publication of vacancy for a Finance and Procurement Assistant: EASO is recruiting a Finance and Procurement Assistant (Temporary Agent, AST3) - Ref.: EASO/2012/008 (closing date 24 May 2012)

More information can be obtained by clicking on: http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/asylum/asylum_easo_en.htmMore information can be obtained by clicking on: http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/asylum/asylum_easo_en.htmMore information can be obtained by clicking on: http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/asylum/asylum_easo_en.htmMore information can be obtained by clicking on: http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/asylum/asylum_easo_en.htm

On 17/18 May 2012, Dr Robert K. Visser, EASOExecutive Director, visited Lisbon, Portugal to holdmeetings with the Portuguese authorities. Amongst others, Dr Visser met Mr Manuel Palos, Director of the Portuguese Immigration and Boarder Service (see picture above). During the meeting the two discussed current issues related to the work of EASO and the Portuguese asylum and immigration system. During his visit Dr Visser also visited a temporary foster home for refugee childrenand a foster home for refugees.

The Executive Director trip to Portugal marks the end of his 2011/2012 tour des capitales, during which he visited all EU Member States and held meetings with high officials, in the field of asylum, in all EU Member States, in order to introduce EASO and discuss its future role.

ISSN: 1977-4818 ISSN: 1977-4818 ISSN: 1977-4818 ISSN: 1977-4818

On 14 -15 May EASO hosted the first of a series of sessions on Unaccompanied Minors and Age Assessment (the process of determining the age of a minor asylum seeker), organised within the framework of the Commission Action Plan on unaccompanied minors and EASO’s work programme. Working alongside the Commission and other agencies, EASO has a key role to play in ensuring the implementation of the plan is a success. Tasks for EASO include: collecting data and developing COI and analysis relevant for assessing the protection needs of Unaccompanied Minors, monitoring the issue of Unaccompanied Minors who are asylum seekers, organising training activities and developing best practises regarding reception conditions and asylum procedures and actions on Age Assessment & Family tracing.

The meetings were attended by representatives from the MemberStates, the Commission and EASO. The aim of these introductory sessions was for Member States to share their experiences, thushelping to complete the picture of the current situation and age assessment methods used throughout the EU. Through a series ofbreak-out and plenary sessions, participants were also able to reflect upon and consider different age assessment methods and approaches in use, the application of safeguarding and procedural measures, and the particular challenges faced, as well as the scope for working together to make progress in this area. Thisincluded provisional discussion on the nature and content of futureMeetings.

Following on from the introductory sessions, from June 2012 EASO will organise expert meetings on interviewing techniques and methods; use of x-ray/medical evidence, legal aspects and roles of the courts and judiciary. These sessions will also involve contributions from members of academia, judiciary and medical profession, as well as organisations advocating Children’s Rights, such as UNHCR and Separated Children in Europe Programme. The outcome of these meetings will contribute to the development of future training materials and guidance on age assessment as stated in the EASO Work Programme.

In the News: First sessions on Unaccompanied Minors and Age Assessment get underway



Mr Claus Folden was born in 1964 in Odense, Denmark. After graduating in Law from theCopenhagen University in 1993, he joined the Danish Immigration Service (DIS). From his very first working days he was a decision maker in refugee status determination and litigating at the Refugee Board. During his career, he occupied a broad range of positions in several countries. A year after he began working at the DIS, he was transferred to the Danish Immigration Office in Zagreb where he eventually held the position of Head of Office.

After working with Bosnian refugees in Zagreb, he went to Sarajevo as part of the teamsetting up the Danish Embassy, where he headed the Immigration portfolio. Following this experience, Claus returned to DIS and became part of the core team paving the way for Denmark’s entry into Schengen. Claus then joined the International Organization for Migration in Vienna; here he headed the Technical Cooperation Centre for five years, getting involved in all aspects of migration globally.He then returned to DIS where he worked on international projects and the introduction of a new electronic case handling system. Before joining EASO, Calus held the position of Senior International Adviser in the Kenyan Department of Refugee Affairs.

Meeting Claus Folden, Head of Centre for Operational Support

Ask the Executive Director

Meet The Team

Fact SheetFact SheetFact SheetFact SheetName: Claus Folden Name: Claus Folden Name: Claus Folden Name: Claus Folden Date of Birth: 28-06-1964Date of Birth: 28-06-1964Date of Birth: 28-06-1964Date of Birth: 28-06-1964Position: Head of Centre Position: Head of Centre Position: Head of Centre Position: Head of Centre for Operational support for Operational support for Operational support for Operational support Nationality: Danish Nationality: Danish Nationality: Danish Nationality: Danish

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In this section, the Executive Director of the European Asylum replies to questions from our readers. If you have a question to ask to the Executive Director please send your question to [email protected].

Can you mention EASO’s key activities and possible outputs to date?Can you mention EASO’s key activities and possible outputs to date?Can you mention EASO’s key activities and possible outputs to date?Can you mention EASO’s key activities and possible outputs to date?

EASO is an independent centre of expertise, support and solidarity. The aim of EASO is to strengthen practical cooperation among Member States on asylum and to support national asylum systems, thereby contributing to the development and implementation of a Common European Asylum System (CEAS). EASO facilitates, coordinates and strengthens cooperation among Member States on the many aspects of asylum, such as: providing practical and operational support to Member States, providing operational support to Member States subject to particular pressure on their asylum systems, including the coordination of asylum support teams made up of asylum experts, provides scientific and technical assistance for EU policy-making and legislation in all areas having a direct or indirect impact on asylum. EASO’s support can be categorised as follows:

1) Permanent-support: supporting and stimulating common high quality of the asylum process by: common training, common asylum curriculum, common services.2) Special Support: tailor made assistance and capacity building and special quality-control.3) Emergency-support: organising solidarity for Member States confronted with particular pressures by providing

temporary support and assistance to readjust or to rebuild the asylum system.

4) Information and analysis -support: collecting, sharing and processing information and data, analysis and assessment:

not only comparing and sharing of information, but also common trend analysis and common assessment, e.g. common

Country of Origin Information.

5) Solidarity-support: facilitating Member States in resettlement and relocation.

6) External Dimension: supporting the external dimension, through partnerships with third countries to reach common solutions by e.g. capacity-building and regional protection programs.

Since the first half of 2011, EASO has been active on various fronts, in particular: on providing training and quality, Country of Origin Information (COI), setting up an early Warning and Preparedness System, providing emergency support when needed (as in Greece and Luxembourg), and setting up the EASO organisation. Moreover, the JHA Council of March 2012 has entrusted EASO with a number of new tasks mainly those related to the implementation of the early warning, preparedness and crisis mechanism. In this context, EASO provides regional outlook, analysis of asylum trends and push-pull factors, as well as risk-scenarios. While EASO keeps its primary task of supporting Member States facing particular pressures, it offers various tools aimed at supporting Member States to be fully prepared, e.g by providing training. Moreover, EASO is currently actively participating in the full evaluation of the Pilot Project for intra-EU Relocation from Malta (EUREMA).



A Common Gateway to Country of Origin Information

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A common portalA common portalA common portalA common portal

Common Country of Origin Information (COI) refers to information on third countries from which asylum seekers originate. Such information is used by Member States when deciding upon an asylum application. Common Country of Origin Information will contribute to a better quality and closer decision making processes in EU Member States.

The development of a common Country of Origin Information web-based entry-point (portal) has been a priority project of the European Commission for several years. Developed by the European Commission, the European COI Common Portal, also called the 'EU Common Portal', underwent three main construction stages (namely: comparative study of existing systems, feasibility study, pilot and portal development). Member States and Third countries were closely associated to thedevelopment of this new gateway in the framework of various Eurasil workshops.

The idea behind this portal was to enable Member State asylum officials to access and search COI from multiple sources,but also to offer additional resources, particularly for those Member States with less elaborated COI systems. The EU Portal was thus designed to allow connection of all the official COI databases owned by Member States, cooperating countries and International Organisations (the UNHCR database, Refworld, and ECOI.net might be connected in the near future) to a single web application, while allowing Member States which do not have electronic databases to upload and share COI documents, national legislation and case law into a local dedicated area called the 'Upload Area'.

On its part, EASO will use its ‘upload’ dedicated space to display information on common COI methodology, country and thematic workshops, Fact Findings Mission (FFMs), EASO country reports and country of origin networks in its Upload dedicated space. Users of the portal already have the possibility to search information across both the connected IT databases and the 'Upload Area'.

Besides acting as an entry point to COI, legislation and case law, the COI Portal also allows for communication and exchange of information through a 'Forum', which provides two distinct functionalities, namely an open discussion forum and a communication tool ('Send questions to Member States'). With the Forum feature, users can communicate doubts, issues or information related to COI and other asylum-related matters as well as to launch suitable questions which will be replied to via a single dedicated email. Users can be updated on novelties related to the Portal or to COI related topics thanks to the 'News section'.

EASO’s role and vision

As one of EASO's duties is to manage, further develop and maintain the COI Portal, it will be gradually transferred to EASOin the course of 2012. Before taking over the COI Portal, EASO would like to further develop some features to improve its usability. In doing so, EASO has established a Working Party composed of five Member States, the European Commission and EASO. This Working Party has already met several times to elaborate 'household rules' for the use of the Portal and to elaborate on some of the Portal's functionalities

As of today, the German COI web based database MILo, is connected to the COI Portal, while at least three other national databases are expected to be linked in the near future. In parallel with the process of defining quality criteria for the upload area, Member States are welcome to upload COI, national legislation and case law in their national upload areas as well as to search for information across the COI Portal.

As more and more information converges into the COI Portal, either through database connection or uploading - making it fully 'live' - it will, without any doubt, provide users with a great opportunity to share knowledge and expertise and to exchange on COI and asylum-related matters. In doing so, it will become an important tool in the further development of the Common European Asylum System.



Recent Developments in EASO Training Recent Developments in EASO Training Recent Developments in EASO Training Recent Developments in EASO Training

With summer just around the corner, the end of EASO’s training semester is getting closer. The training sessions on International Refuge Law and Human Rights as well as on Evidence Assessment will have their face to face session

in Malta starting on 22nd May 2012.

The training sessions on Interviewing Children and the second training session on Inclusion will than conclude this

training semester. The on-line part of these courses starts on 14th May 2012. Furthermore, a specific training session on Interviewing Children will be organised during the expert meeting on interviewing techniques organised by EASO in Malta in July within the framework of EASO’s work on Unaccompanied Minors.

In May EASO also hosted the EASO Training National Contact PointsEASO Training National Contact PointsEASO Training National Contact PointsEASO Training National Contact Points meeting meeting meeting meeting, which discussed the establishment of the EASO Training Cockpit - a tool to better coordinate and measure the progress in implementing EASO training on national levels, through defining precise training target groups within each Member State administration. The results of this fruitful meeting will be used by EASO to fine-tune this tool and start collecting data from Member States.

Pictures Above: EASO Training National Contact Points meeting, 10/11 May 2012, Malta Pictures Above: EASO Training National Contact Points meeting, 10/11 May 2012, Malta Pictures Above: EASO Training National Contact Points meeting, 10/11 May 2012, Malta Pictures Above: EASO Training National Contact Points meeting, 10/11 May 2012, Malta

Get to know EAC Learning path and EAC Modules - Get to know EAC Learning path and EAC Modules - Get to know EAC Learning path and EAC Modules - Get to know EAC Learning path and EAC Modules - Introduction to EU Asylum Law and PolicyIntroduction to EU Asylum Law and PolicyIntroduction to EU Asylum Law and PolicyIntroduction to EU Asylum Law and Policy

The second module in the EAC learning path is – Introduction to EU Asylum Law and Policy. Currently, this module provides a general overview of the legal and institutional framework of asylum issues within the European Union. It also includes an outline of the historical developments within the EU in the field of asylum.

This module (together with the module on Interview techniques) will, in the future, develop into a brand new module focusing on the Common European Asylum System. This update will be launched by EASO in the second half of 2012.

EASO Training

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EASO in Pictures

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Meeting on Meeting on Meeting on Meeting on Unaccompanied Minors and Age AssessmentUnaccompanied Minors and Age AssessmentUnaccompanied Minors and Age AssessmentUnaccompanied Minors and Age Assessment, 14/15 May 2012 , 14/15 May 2012 , 14/15 May 2012 , 14/15 May 2012 Visit to Portugal: Visit to Portugal: Visit to Portugal: Visit to Portugal: During his visit to Portugal, the EASO Executive Director visited a centre for unaccompanied minors. The centre was inaugurated on 15 May 2012. The picture above illustrates the different construction phases.

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Europe’s day:Europe’s day:Europe’s day:Europe’s day: For Europe’s day, the European Asylum Support Office temporary premises sported a banner which reads 9 of MayEurope’s day (in the Maltese language). Photo by Adam Kittl.

Meeting on Meeting on Meeting on Meeting on Unaccompanied Minors and Age AssessmentUnaccompanied Minors and Age AssessmentUnaccompanied Minors and Age AssessmentUnaccompanied Minors and Age Assessment, 14/15 May 2012 , 14/15 May 2012 , 14/15 May 2012 , 14/15 May 2012

Documents

European Asylum Support Office - Newsletter - May 2012 · Mr Claus Folden was born in 1964 in Odense, Denmark. After graduating in Law from the Copenhagen University in 1993, he joined