This snapshot taken on 04/12/2007, shows web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search boxes may not work in archived websites.
Country of Origin Information Service (COI Service) exists to provide
accurate, objective, sourced and up-to-date information on asylum
seekers' countries of origin, for use by IND officials involved
in the asylum determination process.
COI Service is staffed by specialist country officers whose sole
function is to research, compile and produce country of origin information
(COI). They monitor the position in their countries daily and have
access to all the most up-to-date COI sources.
All COI products focus on human rights issues and matters frequently
raised in asylum and human rights claims. They are compiled from
reliable material produced by external information sources such
as the US State Department, UNHCR, human rights organisations, and
news media. All COI products are in the public domain and are based
on published or unclassified source material. They do not contain
any Home Office opinion or policy.
COI material produced by the Home Office is reviewed by the independent
Advisory Panel on Country Information (www.apci.org.uk).
COI Service currently publishes four products:
1) COI Reports: These are detailed summaries compiled
from material produced by a wide range of external information sources,
as noted above. Each report focuses on the main asylum and human
rights issues in the country, but also provides background information
on geography, economy and history. COI Reports are produced on the
20 countries which generate the most asylum applications in the
UK. The reports have been published twice yearly since 1997, but
will be updated on a more frequent basis from October 2006.
2) COI Key Documents: For countries which generate
fewer asylum applications, which are outside the top 20 asylum intake
countries but within the top 50, COI Service provides a product
called ‘COI Key Documents’. This is an indexed electronic
‘bundle’ of key source documents, which brings together
the same sorts of documents that feature in the source material
for COI Reports, but with a brief country profile and index rather
than an actual report. COI Key Documents are updated annually. COI
Key Documents may be issued on countries outside the top 50 asylum
intake countries where there is a particular operational need.
3) COI Bulletins: Bulletins are issued throughout
the year to provide up to date COI as required on countries for
which a COI Report is not produced. As with the reports, bulletins
are fully sourced to a wide range of externally produced material.
4) COI Fact Finding Missions: These are reports
produced following fact finding missions to origin countries.
