LEGISLATION AND DEFINITIONS

What is an asylum seeker, a refugee and a migrant?

An asylum seeker is a person who asks for protection as a refugee but whose case is in the process of consideration. A person becomes a refugee when a state or an international agency has acknowledged that this person is fleeing due to persecution or other threats – this acknowledgement is also known as asylum. A rejected or failed asylum seeker is a person whose asylum claim has been rejected as a result of the consideration of the case.

A migrant has left his/her own country voluntarily, most often to find work, to marry or study. But of course, there are people who have been forced to leave their home country but still cannot be recognized as refugees, fx in relation to natural disasters. They fall outside the convention categories.