He Government of Javier Milei This Tuesday, it expanded the exclusion criteria for asylum seekers in Argentina and the reasons for revoking refugee status, in order to prevent “infiltration of people” who could commit crimes and to expedite the management of requests.
«It is imperative to adjust the refuge regime to prevent it from being used as tool to evade justice and so that it works effectively as a protection mechanism for those who really require it, without compromising national security, and within reasonable deadlines in the duration of the processes,” explains a decree published this Tuesday in the Official Gazette.
Based on this, and after also warning about the “abuse of the refuge regime” by «international terrorist and criminal groups» In order to “expand its networks”, the Government included a series of new criteria among the reasons why the National Commission for Refugees (Conare) can reject asylum applications.
The decree explained that the changes introduced also respond to the “significant number” of immigrants who make refugee requests to Argentina “for reasons that have no relation to the definition of a refugee contained in the law« added to »the slowness of the administrative procedure and the judicial process«, which »obstructs and delays the procedures of those people who effectively require« refuge.
Starting in 2016, Argentina observed a 225% increase at the beginning of refugee procedures; while asylum applications from people from the Middle East have shown “a significant increase” that remains in a range of 60 to 93% annually.
The new criteria
The modifications introduced to the General Law of Recognition and Protection of Refugees add among the exclusion criteria the indictment or convictions outside the country for serious crimes, among which includes those who have in Argentina a sentence greater than 10 years in prisonin addition to those that “affect the life, freedom, physical or sexual integrity of people.”
It also includes those crimes that “are carried out within the framework of organized crime” and those that “affect property” and have been perpetrated with force or violence.
On the other hand, the decree includes participation in “terrorist activities”, serious violations of human rights and “any other action that compromises international peace and security” as grounds for denying asylum, thus expanding some criteria that were already in the law although in more generic terms.
Finally, asylum will also be denied to those who have facilitated, incited or participated in the previously mentioned crimes.
Regarding the extension of the grounds for revocation of the refugee statusthe only modification is the inclusion of abandonment of Argentine territory and establishment in another country that provides protection, while the revocation also extends, beyond the reason, to those who have obtained refugee status as a consequence of the right to family reunification. .
Argentina considers it “necessary” to implement “expedited” procedures for the processing of asylums because currently the average duration of an administrative refugee file in Argentina is four years and, when the decision is judicialized, seven years.
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