I. Training of Asylum Officers and Refugee Adjudicators
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) provides extensive training to Asylum Officers in order to prepare them to perform their duties of adjudicating asylum claims. The training covers all grounds on which an asylum claim may be based, including religion. Asylum Officers[1] receive approximately five weeks of specialized training related to international human rights law, non-adversarial interview techniques, and other relevant national and international refugee laws and principles. During the five-week training and in local asylum office training, the CIS provides Asylum Officers with specialized training on religious persecution issues. With the passage of IRFA in 1998, the five-week training program expanded to incorporate as a part of the regular curriculum information about IRFA. In addition, a continual effort is made to include further discussion of religious persecution whenever possible in both the five-week training and in local asylum office training.
The CIS also provides Refugee Adjudicators with a specialized two-week training course in refugee law and overseas refugee procedures, as mandated by IRFA. The course was largely adapted from the Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AOBTC), with some new modules developed specifically for overseas refugee processing. The training program pays special attention to religious persecution issues. Refugee trainings are conducted as needed.
The Resource Information Center (RIC) in the Asylum Division of the Office of Asylum and Refugee Affairs serves both Asylum Officers and Refugee Adjudicators, and is responsible for the collection and/or production and distribution of materials regarding human rights conditions around the world. The RIC has published an online guide to web research that is posted on the internal DHS website, the Intranet. An Intranet site was created with links to government and non-government websites that contain information on religious persecution. The RIC separately catalogues religious freedom periodicals and separately codes RIC responses to field queries that involve religious issues.
III. Guidelines for Addressing Hostile Biases
Starting in 2002, the CIS included specific anti-bias provisions in the language services contract used by Asylum Officers in the Asylum Pre-Screening Program. The contract and interpreter oath also include special provisions that ensure the security and confidentiality of the credible fear process. The CBP has issued comprehensive guidance on the use of interpreters and interpreter service to all inspections personnel. This guidance incorporates the anti-bias provisions of IRFA.______________
[1] Asylum Officers are required to complete two five-week training courses, the Adjudication and Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AAOBTC), and the Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AOBTC). The AAOBTC covers the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and basic immigration law. The AOBTC includes international human rights law, asylum and refugee law, interviewing techniques, decision-making and decision-writing skills, effective country conditions research skills, and computer skills. In addition compulsory in-service training for all asylum officers is held weekly.
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