Refugee status for persons who refuse to perform military service
The situation of “deserters and persons avoiding military service” is addressed in UNHCR’s Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees [“UNHCR Handbook”]. The UNHCR Handbook sets out three key principles:
- Fear of persecution and punishment for desertion or draft-evasion does not in itself constitute well-founded fear of persecution under the definition of a Convention refugee. Desertion or draft-evasion does not, on the other hand, exclude a person from being a refugee, and a person may be a refugee in addition to being a deserter or draft-evader.
- A person is clearly not a refugee if his only reason for desertion or draft-evasion is his dislike of military service or fear of combat. He may, however, be a refugee if his desertion or evasion of military service is concomitant with other relevant motives for leaving or remaining outside his country, or if he otherwise has reasons, within the meaning of the definition, to fear persecution.
- There are, however, also cases where the necessity to perform military service may be the sole ground for a claim to refugee status, i.e. when a person can show that the performance of military service would have required his participation in military action contrary to his genuine political, religious or moral convictions, or to valid reasons of conscience.
Therefore, a claim involving draft-evasion or desertion should be fully examined on its merits by paying particular attention to the following factors, among others:
- Existence of compulsory military service (i.e. conscription) in the claimant’s country, who is required to serve, and the length of service, as well as the manner in which military service is instituted and administered;
- Legal recognition of, and procedures for obtaining, conscientious objector status and the ground(s) accepted by that country as valid for conscientious objection;
- Availability of alternative service and the nature of that service (i.e. non-combat service within the military, civilian service in the social/developmental field, etc.);
- The state of the judicial system in the claimant’s country and its human rights record, particularly regarding evidence of human rights violations by the armed forces;
- The standards and demands of the international community regarding the purposes, means, and methods of conscription and the use of armed force;
- The nature of military activity which military service would have required of the claimant;
- The nature and severity of the penalty or treatment for claimants who refuse to serve in their military.
In 2018, for the first time, Israel’s Appeals Tribunal awarded refugee status to an Eritrean who evaded his country’s military service, in the case of Masegna v. The Ministry of Interior, appeal 1010-14.
Humanitarian visa for Darfuris
By 2012, over 15,500 Sudanese nationals had arrived in Israel seeking international protection. Many of these asylum seekers originated from the conflict zones of Darfur, Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains. Only one applicant, from Darfur, has been granted refugee status out of thousands who submitted their asylum applications.
Instead of refugee status, the State has granted humanitarian visas and temporary residency to approximately 1,400 Darfuri asylum applicants, starting with 600 seekers in 2007 followed by another 800 during 2017-2019. As of the end of 2019, there were 4,583 pending asylum applications from Sudanese nationals.
UNHCR’s position on the international protection needs of Darfuris
Documents and Resources
- UNHCR RSD Handbook and Accompanying Guidelines – English | Hebrew:
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 1: Gender-Related Persecution – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 2: Membership of a Particular Social Group – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 6: Religion-Based Refugee Claims – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 7: Victims of Trafficking and Persons At Risk of Being Trafficked – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 8: Child Asylum Claims – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 9: Claims to Refugee Status based on Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 10: Claims to Refugee Status related to Military Service – English | Hebrew
- Guidelines on International Protection No. 12: Claims for refugee status related to situations of armed conflict and violence – English | Hebrew