Author
| Name in English | Number of staff | Ministry responsible | Is there any political interference possible by the responsible Minister with the decision making in individual cases by the determining authority? |
| Migration directorate | 56 | MoI | No |
Source: Migration directorate, March 2026.
The determining authority is the International Protection Procedures Division, which is part of the Migration directorate of the MoI. It is a specialised and centralised authority responsible for examining applications for international protection and competent to take decisions at first instance.
Out of 56 employees at the Migration directorate, 32 work in the International Protection Procedures division, 13 of which make decisions on asylum applications. This means that the caseworker conducting the interview is not necessarily responsible for deciding on the asylum application. The separation of tasks between an interviewer and a decision-maker was introduced in June 2016 with the aim of speeding up and improving the efficiency of the asylum procedure. The lodging of the application is short and requires that the applicant states their reasons for asylum in few sentences. After an application for international protection is lodged, a “first interview on the merits” is conducted, during which the applicant provides detailed grounds for applying for asylum. The interview is conducted by the officials responsible for lodging the applications or by the “decision makers”. Which official will conduct the interview is decided on a case by case basis. If not before the case is referred to a “decision maker”, after the personal interview, who can either issue a decision on the asylum application or decide to conduct a second interview on the merits.
Regarding quality assurance, the Migration directorate has established a mechanism whereby each decision has to be authorised by a responsible official of the International Protection Procedures Division before it is issued. A review is thus conducted on the case files, the documentation, country of origin information (COI) and the decision made in the individual case. The authorised official can approve the decision, change it or give additional instructions regarding the procedure.[1] Each decision is then (after International protection procedures division responsible official revises it) additionally supervised by the head of the International Protection Procedures sector, who provides additional quality control of the decisions. Each decision is supervised by two persons.[2]
In 2025 the officials of the MoI mainly attended the EUAA trainings on the new Pact on Migration and Asylum specifically on the asylum procedure, vulnerability, key legislative changes and on the AMMR.[3]
[1] Information provided by the Migration directorate, March 2023.
[2] Information provided by the Ministry of Interior March 2026.
[3] Information provided by the Ministry of Interior March 2026.