Recognition of Religious Conversion in Asylum Procedure

Political turmoil, war, and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa have challenged the system of international protection in Europe in both the quantity and diversity of asylum claims. An increasingly common ground for asylum is religious conversion and disa”liation. In such cases national immigration authorities conduct a credibility assessment which may include questionnaires on doctrine, testimonies from a religious community, and/or questions about personal experience and the meaning of conversion. This article analyses the Finnish Immigration Service’s asylum decisions in which religious conversion has been the basis of the asylum claim, and it discusses the frameworks for assessing authenticity and how they function in international protection decision making.