EU asylum law determines that people who flee from persecution in their home country should be granted refugee status or subsidiary protection. If a person’s case does not meet all criteria for this type of protection, Member States can step in and offer national protection.
The European Migration Network (EMN) study provides an overview of national protection statuses since 2010 in the EU Member States and Norway, examining the protection grounds, procedures, key rights and content of protection of each type of status.
Some key points to note from this study:
- 21 Member States and Norway had at least one national protection status in addition to those harmonised at EU level. The study identified a total of 60 non-harmonised protection statuses.
- National protection statuses cater for a wide variety of protection needs and situations, exceeding the grounds for international protection under EU asylum law.
- 11 Member States introduced legislative changes regarding national protection statuses between 2010 and 2018, which mostly consisted of establishing more restrictive eligibility criteria.
* French version of the inform and EMN Flash provided by EMN France.