asylum seeker

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a person who has left their country of origin and is formally requesting international protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, whose claim has not yet been determined by the host country's asylum adjudication system; an asylum seeker is distinct from a recognised refugee (whose claim has been accepted), an irregular migrant (who has not made a formal protection claim), and an economic migrant (who is moving primarily for livelihood reasons rather than persecution); the asylum process involves submission of a claim, evidentiary hearings, determination of whether the person faces a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group, and either recognition or rejection of the claim