New website to assist with identification of special needs in the asylum procedure and reception context
The EU's European Asylum Support Office (EASO) yesterday announced the launch of a new online tool which helps identify asylum seekers with special needs.
The new EASO tool for identification of persons with special needs (IPSN tool) has its own website here.
EASO says the tool can be used by anyone who is in contact with applicants for international protection in their daily work and who may have a role in the identification of special needs in the asylum procedure and the reception context.
It may be used at any stage of the asylum procedure and at any stage of the reception process.
The IPSN tool primarily addresses the need to identify special needs based on key indicators grouped in the following categories: age; sex; gender identity and sexual orientation; family status (in relation to the asylum procedure); physical indicators; psychosocial indicators; and environmental indicators.
EASO says that the tool enables you to save or print a report summarising the identification information and outlining the potentially necessary actions to take. It also allows users to add their own notes, so that the report can become an integral part of the applicant's file.
A guide to using the tool is here.
According to EASO, the tool was developed by a Working Group of national experts from Belgium, Bulgaria, Malta, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and included input from a Reference Group, including the European Commission, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).