Refugees have certain rights under international law, but whether they can enjoy them depends on the asylum system they encounter. Too often, national systems are failing. They are inefficient for governments, which waste resources without resolving asylum claims, and they are ineffective for refugees, who are left without rights or protection.
That’s where a vital, emerging area of policy and practice comes into play: asylum capacity development. It’s about strengthening the legal, institutional and social arrangements that are put in place to meet the needs of refugees.
A new Kaldor Centre Policy Brief sheds light on what asylum capacity development is, how it should be understood and put into practice, and spells out the best-practice standards for measuring success.