Home Office country information on Afghanistan and Colombia examined by Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration

An inspection report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) reviewing Home Office country of origin information (COI) on Afghanistan and Colombia was published this week.

Image credit: WikipediaYou can download the 158-page report here.

For COI inspections, the ICIBI convenes the expert Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI) for assistance, which commissions qualified experts through a public tendering process. The chosen experts examined a number of Home Office Country Policy and Information Notes (CPINs) and Country of Origin Information Request (COIR) responses.

Significantly, the review of COI for Afghanistan was commissioned after the proportion of Afghan asylum applicants receiving positive initial decisions fell from 98% in the year ending March 2024 to 44% in the year ending March 2025, a change that appeared to coincide with the publication of updated CPINs.

The review of Aghanistan, undertaken by a independent country of origin information researcher, concluded that, taken together, the Afghanistan CPINs provide "a comprehensive and objective assessment of the humanitarian, socio-political and economic situation in Afghanistan under Taliban rule since 2021" and that each document demonstrates "robust research and use of credible material."

However, the reviewer identified limitations in the range and depth of sources available, reflecting the wider difficulty of obtaining reliable information from Afghanistan.

Reviewer Kauthar Menhal emphasised that country information should be updated frequently to reflect developments such as militant attacks and the October 2025 internet blackout. She also questioned the Home Office's reluctance to rely on some older sources, arguing that in a country where independent information is scarce, the absence of newer evidence does not necessarily mean previously documented problems have disappeared.

The review found the CPIN on Fear of the Taliban to be "particularly strong" and provided credible evidence of repression, human rights abuses and risks faced by vulnerable groups. However, the reviewer found that some Home Office policy assessments did not fully reflect the level of concern evident in the underlying country information, stating that in several cases the evidence indicated "a well-founded fear of persecution" that was not fully reflected in policy conclusions.

Home Office responses are included throughout the report. It accepted many of the reviewer's recommendations and agreed to incorporate additional sources in future updates. However, officials said caseworkers generally needed information about substantial changes in conditions rather than incremental developments, and noted that country information could be withdrawn and interim guidance issued where circumstances changed significantly.

The Home Office rejected criticism over policy assessments not fully reflecting the level of concern evident in the underlying country information, calling it "an over-generalised criticism" and "the reviewer's opinion". It noted such opinions on the Home Office's assessment, rather than the COI, was outside the scope of the review.

With regard to this point, the ICIBI stated: "IAGCI members noted that this issue had been raised in the past, and that while they accepted that policy was outside of the scope of the Group's review process, they reiterated the suggestion made in past discussions of this point that reviewers should be able to raise concerns about any statements of fact within the assessment that they believed were objectively inaccurate."

The review of Home Office country information on Colombia found that the quality of sources used was "generally good" and described the CPINs as "a welcome addition to the English-language resources available on conditions in the country."

Reviewer Robert Karl, an academic at Minerva University in the USA, recommended greater transparency around the use of artificial intelligence tools after identifying indications that AI had been used to locate some sources. He stated: "LLMs/AI seem to have been used in this CPN, if sparingly: the link for the source cited in footnote 104 includes a redirect from ChatGPT, as does the link for the source cited in footnote 102. However, that latter source is one of the trio of sources that seem to have been 'hallucinated' by ChatGPT."

In response, the Home Office acknowledged that government guidance on the use of AI use was evolving and said: "We agree we need to declare where LLMs/AI has been used, but do not agree we need to explain the minutae detail of how. We do not, for example, share search strings used on internet search engines."

Karl also suggested that the Home Office consider whether information is best presented chronologically or thematically to help non-specialists understand country conditions. The Home Office said in response that it was considering publishing a methodological note explaining how country information is organised and presented.

The review further argued that the CPINs could provide more context on the regional and inter-regional nature of Colombia's security situation. Karl noted that local criminal groups are often connected to larger criminal organisations and state actors, meaning that threats originating in one area can sometimes extend beyond regional boundaries. He said Colombia's internal conflict continues to evolve and that these wider dynamics have "national implications that transcend regional contexts".