Topic: Credibility

There is a small but important body of literature focusing on credibility and refugee status determination. These are some of the key works:

Byrne, R. (2007). "Assessing Testimonial Evidence in Asylum Proceedings: Guiding Standards from the International Criminal Tribunals". International Journal of Refugee Law. 19 (4) 609-638 doi: 10.1093/ijrl/eem056

Crepeau, F. and D. Nakache, D. (2008). "Critical spaces in the Canadian refugee determination system: 1989-2002" International Journal of Refugee Law 20 (1) 50-122

Dauvergne, C. and Millbank, J. (2003). "Burdened by Proof: How the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal has failed lesbian and gay asylum seekers" Federal Law Review 31 299-342 Online

Granhag, P.A. (2005). "Granting asylum or not? Migration board personnel's beliefs about deception" Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 29-50 doi: 10.1080/1369183042000305672

Kagan, M. (2003). "Is Truth in the Eye of the Beholder? Objective Credibility Assessment in Refugee Status Determinations" Georgetown Law Journal 17 367-416 Online

Noll, G.(ed.) (2005). Proof, Evidentiary Assessment and Credibility in Asylum Procedures. Leiden/Boston:Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Rousseau, C., Crepeau, F., Foxen P. and Houle, F. (2002). "The Complexity of Determining Refugeehood: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Decision-making Process of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board" 15 Journal of Refugee Studies 43-70 doi: 10.1093/ijrl/een011

Steel, Z., Frommer, N. and Silove, D. "Part I: The mental health impacts of migration: the law and its effects Failing to understand: refugee determination and the traumatized applicant" (2004) International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 27 511-528. Online

Thomas, R. (2005). "Evaluating Tribunal Adjudication: Administrative Justice and Asylum Appeals" (2005) Legal Studies 25(3) 462-498 doi: 10.1111/j.1748-121X.2005.tb00679.x

Thomas, R. (2006). "Assessing the Credibility of Asylum Claims: EU and UK Approaches Examined" (2006) European Journal of Migration and Law 8 79-96 doi: 10.1163/157181606776911969

Thomas, R. (2011) Administrative Justice and Asylum Appeals: A Study of Tribunal Adjudication. Oxford: Hart Publishing.


Below are links to CSEL papers that directly consider credibility assessment:


A review of adolescent autobiographical memory and the implications for assessment of unaccompanied minors’ refugee determinations

Given-Wilson, Z., Hodes, M. & Herlihy, J. A review of adolescent autobiographical memory and the implications for assessment of unaccompanied minors’ refugee determinations. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104517748697


Telling the story: A psychological review on assessing adolescents’ asylum claims

Given-Wilson, Z., Herlihy, J., Hodes, M (2016). Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Vol 57(4), Nov 2016, 265-273


The importance of looking credible: the impact of the behavioural sequelae of post-traumatic stress disorder on the credibility of asylum seekers

This study demonstrates the impact of how a claimant presents his or her story on the assessment of credibility.

Rogers, H., Fox, S. & Herlihy, J. (2015). The importance of looking credible: the impact of the behavioural sequelae of post-traumatic stress disorder on the credibility of asylum seekers. Psychology, Crime & Law 21(2) 139-155 DOI: 10.1080/1068316X.2014.951643


What Assumptions about Human Behaviour Underlie Asylum Judgments?

This is a qualitative study showing that assumptions made about human behaviour by asylum judges in the UK are not always in line with scientific knowledge.

Herlihy, J., Gleeson, K. and Turner, S. (2010). What Assumptions about Human Behaviour Underlie Asylum Judgments? International Journal of Refugee Law 22(3) 351-366