The following information on the Country Assessment reports was provided to the Research Directorate by the Country Information and Policy Unit of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office.

The purpose of the Assessments is to provide information to asylum caseworkers and presenting officers to assist them in deciding asylum applications or presenting appeals. The information they contain is not exhaustive, nor is it intended to catalogue all human rights violations. They concentrate on the issues most commonly raised in asylum claims made in the United Kingdom.

The Assessments are sourced throughout. They are intended to be used by caseworkers as a signpost to the source material, which is also made available to them. The vast majority of the source material is readily available in the public domain.

The Assessments are revised on a roughly 6-month basis, (currently in April and October), as long as the country remains within the top 35 countries of origin. The latest (fifth) version of the Assessments, issued in April 2000, are in the process of being published.

The Assessments are placed on the IND page of the Home Office website: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/cipu1.htm and made available to various NGOs and other organisations in the United Kingdom:

Amnesty International UK

Immigration Advisory Service

Immigration Appellate Authority

Immigration Law Practitioners' Association

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

JUSTICE

Medical Foundation for the care of Victims of Torture

Refugee Council

Refugee Legal Centre

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Sources of information

In compiling Country Assessments, CIPU uses as wide a variety of source material as possible. These include:

Amnesty International reports

Human Rights Watch reports

Europa Yearbook

US State Department reports on human rights practices

Information from the Research Directorate of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board

UNHCR reports

Reports by UN Special Rapporteurs

Information on day-to-day events is obtained from:

Reuters

BBC Monitoring Summary of World Broadcasts

Daily newspapers in the UK, both in hard copy and on the Internet

International news magazines

Foreign magazines and newspapers, both in hard copy and on the Internet

News organisations' Websites e.g. BBC, ITN, CNN and regional networks etc.

CIPU may use the Home Office Library, which has access to other on-line databases such as Lexis/Nexis, as well as a variety of CD ROMs, periodicals and academic papers.

Country officers in CIPU are now establishing contacts with academics in universities, both in the United Kingdom and abroad, to widen the scope of the available material.

How the information is used in the CIPU Country Assessments

Country officers use a selection of the material from the sources listed above in preparing the Country Assessments. CIPU's aim is to produce documents which are accurate and which present a balanced view of conditions in each country. Country officers have sought to use information from reliable and impartial sources and to corroborate information whenever possible.

Quality Review

Country Assessments are referred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and British diplomatic posts abroad for comment.

Internal quality reviews take place, in which asylum caseworkers and Presenting Officers are asked for comments.

Various NGOs and academics continue to submit comments on the Assessments, and these are taken into account in subsequent editions.

This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Country Information and Policy Unit, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Home Office, London. 4 May 2000. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate.