Asylum interviews as interrogations to unmask bogus refugees
The case of Belgian asylum agencies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v8i1.23Keywords:
bogus asylum seeker, admissibility phase/procedure, screening interview, interrogation techniques, credibility (assessment), inconsistenciesAbstract
This paper examines the interaction between officers and asylum applicants in admissibility interviews by analyzing twelve interviews recorded during my fieldwork in the Belgian Immigration Department (ID) between 2004 and 2007, their corresponding records, and the ID’s decisions. This paper focuses on some officers’ practices during the interview, suggesting that they categorize the applicants as bogus refugees from the very beginning of the interview. In those cases, their main objective becomes one of unmasking them as bogus refugees and eliciting elements that may be used by the asylum agencies in order to arrive at a negative decision. To this end, the officials employ interrogation techniques that may well cause the applicant to become confused and thus jeopardize the construction of the climate of confidence needed in an asylum interview.
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Komter, M. L. (2006) From talk to text: The interactional construction of a police record. Research on Language and Social Interaction 39 (3): 201–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3903_2
Lynn, N. and Lea, S. (2003) ‘A phantom menace and the new Apartheid’: The social construction of asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom. Discourse and Society 14 (4): 425–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926503014004002
Maryns, K. (2006) The Asylum Speaker: Language in the Belgian Asylum Procedure. Manchester: St. Jerome.
McIntyre, J. S. and Craik, F. I. (1987) Age differences in memory for item and source information. Canadian Journal of Psychology 41(2): 175–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0084154
Moniteur Belge (1980) Loi du 15 décembre de 1980 sur l’accès au territoire, le séjour, l’établissement et l’éloignement des étrangers. Published on 31 December 1980.
Moniteur Belge (2004) Arrêté royal fixant certains éléments de la procédure à suivre par le service de l’Office des étrangers chargé de l’examen des demandes d’asile sur la base de la loi du 15 décembre 1980 sur l’accès au territoire, le séjour, l’établissement et l’éloignement des étrangers. Published on 27th January 2004.
Rousseau, C. and Foxen, P. (2005) Constructing and deconstructing the myth of the lying refugee: Paradoxes of power and justice in an administrative immigration tribunal. In E. Van Dongen (ed.) Lying and Illness: Power and Performance, 57–91. Amsterdam: Her Spinhuis.
Schreuders, B. (2007) L’évaluation de la crédibilité des demandes d’asile après la reforme de la procédure. Unpublished Masters Dissertation. Brussels: Institut de Formation de l’Administration Fédérale (IFA), SPF personnel et organisation.
Story, B. (2005) Politics as Usual: The Criminalization of Asylum Seekers in the United States. RSC (Refugee Studies Center) Working Paper number 26 [Available at the Refugee studies centre’s website: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk. Accessed on 24th August 2011]
The Council of the European Union (1992) Council Resolution of 30 November 1992 on Manifestly Unfounded Applications for Asylum (‘London Resolution’), 30 November 1992 [Available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3f86bbcc4.html. Accessed on 23rd August 2011].
The Council of European Union (2004) European Council Directive 2004/83/EC on Minimum Standards for the Qualification and Status of Third Country Nationals or Stateless Persons as Refugees or as Persons Who Otherwise Need International Protection and the Content of the Protection Granted. Published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 304 on 30/09/2004.
The Council of European Union (2005) European Council Directive 2005/85/EC of 1 December 2005 on Minimum Standards on Procedures in Member States for Granting and Withdrawing Refugee Status. Published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 326/13 on 13/12/2005.
United Nations (1951) Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees [Available on http://www.UNHCR.org.htm. Accessed on 24th August 2011].
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (1995) Interviewing Applicants for Refugee Status. RLD4. UNHCR [Available on http://www.unhcr.org. Accessed on 24th August 2011].
Van Dijk, T. (1997) Political discourse and racism: Describing others in western parliaments. In S. Riggins (ed.) The Language and Politics of Exclusion: Others in Discourse, 31–65.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Van Dijk, T. (2008) Discourse and Context: A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511481499
Published
2013-07-19
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Gomez Diez, I. (2013). Asylum interviews as interrogations to unmask bogus refugees : The case of Belgian asylum agencies. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 8(1), 23-47. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v8i1.23
