Request a Research Report

Submitting a request takes approximately 10-15 minutes. Please make sure you have information regarding your client’s case to hand, and try to provide as much specific information regarding your client’s situation as you can without identifying them. Note that submitting a request does not guarantee that you will receive a report. We will need to assess your request and if we have questions we will need you to answer them before we can find a researcher to take on the case.

It is essential that you complete the form as thoroughly as possible to ensure that our research accurately addresses your clients’ situation. Otherwise our researchers will need to contact you for additional information before they can begin, which may lead to delays. If you can provide additional documentation to clarify your client’s case, please do so.

Please note that we ask for a minimum deadline of five weeks’ time. If your deadline is shorter than that, please indicate why under ‘additional information’, or your request may not be completed.

Once you have submitted a request you will receive a confirmation of receipt by email. Your request will be sent to the relevant team, and one of our team Coordinators will be in touch within a week to confirm whether we have found a researcher to accept your case. The Coordinator may require further information from you in order for the research to begin, or at any stage during the research process. It is essential that you are able to respond to any further enquiries the coordinator may have, otherwise the research may be delayed or rejected.

You will receive your report via email on or before the stated deadline. It takes a minimum of five weeks to produce a research report. If your deadline is shorter than five weeks, please let us know why under ‘additional information’ and we will try to prioritise it, but note that we cannot guarantee a researcher.

All reports require the completion of a Feedback Form by the requester. The purpose of this form is to understand our impact by collecting the outcomes of cases on which we work, whilst also making sure that our reports continue to meet your needs in a fast-changing legal environment. It takes less than five minutes to complete and can be filled out after the case has received a final decision.

Country-of-Origin Information research is a dynamic field which involves a wide variety of investigative research techniques. At Asylos, we start with the basics and go above and beyond to discover information others can’t.

The diversity of our network means we can reach into corners of the world where information is scarce. We speak over 25 languages, have access to thousands of academic journals, live in 27 countries, including some refugee countries of origin, and boast an enormous range of research and digital skills. 

Our volunteers are graduates and professionals highly qualified in a variety of academic fields  and experienced in conducting research using a wide variety of methods. We have a competitive recruitment and rigorous onboarding process for new researchers, which involves undergoing thorough testing and internal training. Researchers are supervised by highly experienced Coordinators, who conduct peer-review on all reports, and research is routinely audited by an experienced legal team to ensure quality control.

When researching relevant information, there are a few sources we always systematically check:

• dedicated COI databases such as ecoi.net., which contain reports from national governments, supra-national bodies (EU, UN, etc), major international NGOs, specialist networks, local NGOs, and other public sources
• national and international media reports in over 25 languages
• academic literature and reports from think tanks

However, Asylos researchers may also conduct a variety of digital and non-digital investigative research techniques, including:

• scouring social media
• retrieving and verifying video footage
• making use of satellite imagery
• creating and analysing datasets
• where necessary, we use our network of contacts to reach out to local sources and subject experts to request additional information or clarification

Our reports are formatted as a pdf with a list of quotations from existing sources, with citations and source descriptions so that you can trace the content back to its original location. Where we have found large bodies of relevant evidence we may attach these as appendices to the report. We include all content which is considered relevant, timely, and reliable and our reports aim for neutrality, objectivity, and accuracy. As such, once a report has been produced, it can only be changed or amended under exceptional circumstances, such as if new information comes to light, or a procedural error is identified.

• Asylos is not considered a ‘legal expert’ organisation. In some countries, ‘legal experts’ in Country-of-Origin Information are specific individuals recognised by the court system as qualified to provide testimony to the court on country conditions. In this sense, our reports are not the same as ‘expert testimony’. We do not provide risk assessments, interpretation, or judgements. Our volunteers are experts in research, and we attempt to answer research questions by providing relevant, objective, timely, and reliable source material. Its evaluation must remain your responsibility.
• We do not provide legal advice. There are lawyers and other NGOs across the world who provide such advice. If you are based in Europe, you will find some of them in the ELENA Index. If you are based in the U.S., you can browse the Electronic Immigration Network’s Pro Bono Directory.
• We aim to present a full and unbiased representation of the answers to your questions. Asylos’ reports therefore include all discoverable information relevant to your request, whether or not supportive of the claim in question.  It is therefore your responsibility to read the whole report and select from it the sources to submit as evidence.