UNHCR Egypt has a large RSD unit which processes asylum-seekers originating from 58 different nationalities, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa (Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia). In line with the regional policy, Syrians and Yemenis are not processed for RSD unless a resettlement need is identified.
In previous years, UNHCR undertook a major restructuring of its RSD case processing system in order to realign the existing processing modalities to UNHCR’s global and regional guidelines. The reporting line and feedback system were also remodelled. This has allowed the unit to gain efficiency while maintaining integrity in the processes. In line with the release of the new RSD Procedural Standards in 2020, new assessment forms at first instance and appeal were introduced.
However, the COVID-19 situation had a great impact on RSD outputs. Similar to other units, the RSD unit started teleworking on 15 March 2020. Between 15 March and 15 June 2020, all RSD interviews were rescheduled and people who had already been interviewed and assessed were not notified of negative decisions.
As of May 2020, the RSD unit developed and implemented a remote interview project, in line with the UNHCR MENA Protection Service Guidance. Despite the challenges, UNHCR Egypt was able to conduct a substantial number of interviews with 4,815 cases (comprising 8,128 individuals) interviewed.
In addition, the unit was able to reduce its outstanding backlogs. The drafting backlog was reduced from 2,026 to 44 cases, the first instance review backlog was reduced from 6,936 to 854 cases. This can be considered a significant achievement as these backlogs had created a bottleneck for the operation for the last five to six years.
It should further be noted that in 2020, 9,724 cases (comprising 17,485 individuals) were finalized at all instances, constituting 86.8% of the annual target for 2020 (11,200).
Several national staff have been capacitated and upgraded to reviewing tasks which has contributed in progressing toward reaching the annual target of finalized decisions.
However, the pandemic impacted negatively on many performance indicators. For example, the waiting periods from Registration to RSD interview as well as from Appeal Application Received to Appeal Result have expanded instead of reducing as planned. This is due to the fact that despite the resumption of RSD interviews for a considerable number of applicants, the remote process accounted for barely half of the capacity the unit used to have in normal circumstances.