Guide

INTERPOL's refugee policy

INTERPOL says a Red Notice may not be published against a person whose refugee status has been confirmed, under a policy endorsed in 2014 and formalised by the General Assembly in 2017.

• INTERPOL's background note says that under its refugee policy a Red Notice may not be published if the person's status as a refugee has been confirmed.¹
• The policy for Red Notices and diffusions against refugees was endorsed by the Executive Committee in June 2014 and formalised by a General Assembly resolution in September 2017.²
• The 2017 resolution encourages countries, in line with national law, to tell INTERPOL or the CCF when a person is granted refugee status.²
• In a 2023 decision the CCF found the refugee policy did not apply because the applicant held no status protecting him from refoulement, only a residence permit.³
• Refugee status does not prevent arrest everywhere. Hakeem al-Araibi, who held an Australian protection visa, was arrested in Thailand in 2018 on a Bahraini Red Notice, and Nikita Kulachenkov, a refugee in Lithuania, was held in Cyprus in 2016.^4,5,6

Sources

1. INTERPOL, Background Note: Information System Safeguards for the Exchange of Personal Data (undated (post October 2019))
2. INTERPOL, INTERPOL General Assembly adopts data processing policy on refugees (29 September 2017)
3. INTERPOL CCF, 2023 Decision Excerpt No 4: Purpose, description of criminal activities, political character (2023)
4. Amnesty International, Outcome Urgent Action UA 206/18, Thailand (February 2019)
5. OCCRP, Cyprus: Justice Minister Claims Arrested Navalny Ally to Be Freed (10 February 2016)
6. Euronews, Russia is using Interpol to target Putin's political rivals, says NGO (17 March 2018)