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After UNHCR opens a file for you, they will ask you to come in for a registration interview
with an interpreter if you do not speak English or are not comfortable speaking English. During
this registration interview, the UNHCR officer will ask for your basic information about
why you left your country. We can accompany you to this interview.After this interview,
you will have another interview, called the “RSD” interview. We also can accompany
you to this interview. During this interview, a UNHCR officer will ask you much more detailed
questions about what happened to you, why you left your country, and why you are afraid
to go back. Based on the information that you provide in your interviews and information
that they have gathered on your country, the UNHCR officers will decide whether you meet
the legal requirements of a refugee. A refugee, is someone who is outside his or her country,
because they have what is called a well founded fear of persecution. The persecution must
be based on one of five things: your race, religion, nationality, political opinion or
particular social group, and the government of your country must be unwilling or unable
to protect you, and you must not be safe living anywhere else in your country. Persecution,
means a basic, a violation of your human rights, when a government or non government forces
makes it difficult for you to live safely in your country. Well founded fear means a
fear that is based on reality as the situation is in your country. A particular social groups,
means a group of people that are united by a common characteristic or common history
that is so important to you that you either cannot change it or should not be forced to
change. So basically a refugee is someone who is outside of their country because their
government cannot protect them from being harmed because of who they are.