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Asylum and Refugee Status

GabonHumanitarian protection

Explore the five recorded questions, answers and sources for this pathway.

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Explore pathways in Gabon Read the five questions ↓

What exactly is this: asylum, temporary protection, humanitarian admission, resettlement or another protection mechanism?

This is asylum: a request for refugee status in Gabon, handled under Gabon's implementing decree No. 000646/PR/MAEFC. Gabon is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol as well as the 1969 OAU Convention governing the specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The capture does not prove domestic filing procedure, competent authority, processing rights, status duration, or a current operational help channel; independent review is pending.

Which population, circumstances or geographic group does the mechanism cover?

Refugee status covers persons meeting the refugee definition in Article 1 of the 31 January 1967 Protocol to the 28 July 1951 UN Refugee Convention and in Article 1 of the 1969 OAU Convention governing the specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The decree refers to the treaty definitions without reproducing them; it names no specific nationality groups, exclusions or cessation grounds.

Where can protection be requested, and is this a direct application, border/in-country request, referral or other process?

Under Gabon's implementing decree (No. 000646/PR/MAEFC, Sous-Commission d’Eligibilite), a refugee-status request is presented to the National Commission, to civil or military border authorities, or to a Gabonese diplomatic or consular mission, and may be filed by the candidate, by UNHCR, or by Gabon’s own civil or military authorities. The request must be filed within a maximum of ten days after entering Gabonese territory, and it is receivable as of right.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The decree does not state what happens if the ten-day filing deadline is missed, nor a separate procedure for a request filed from outside Gabon other than through a diplomatic or consular mission.
  • Supersedes revision 2, which relied on a UNHCR RIMAP page (rimap.unhcr.org/node/42456) independently confirmed on 2026-09-14 to describe the Democratic Republic of the Congo's National Commission for Refugees decree, not Gabon's; that citation was a country mismatch, not a Gabon fact.

What happens after the request: registration, family handling, major support and rights where officially stated?

Under Gabon's implementing decree (No. 000646/PR/MAEFC), once the request is filed and an interview held, the applicant is issued a receipt (récépissé) valid for three months, renewable. This receipt does not authorise the holder to work, but it makes the holder eligible for the regulatory assistance provided under Gabonese regulations, and its holder benefits from the same protection regime (articles 31–33 of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention) as the holder of a refugee identity card.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • Does not state how many times the three-month receipt may be renewed, nor a fixed maximum total length for the eligibility procedure itself.
  • Supersedes revision 2, which relied on a UNHCR RIMAP page (rimap.unhcr.org/node/42456) independently confirmed on 2026-09-14 to describe the Democratic Republic of the Congo's National Commission for Refugees decree, not Gabon's; that citation was a country mismatch, not a Gabon fact.

Which competent authority, UN body or official assistance channel should the person use?

The decree sets up the Sous-Commission d'Eligibilité, chaired by a representative of the Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs; the minutes and the list of persons admitted to refugee status are published and communicated to UNHCR by the National Commission within fifteen days.

See recorded sources
Limits of the record
  • The captured sources give no contact details, office address or operational help channel for applicants, and no fraud or scam warning.

These are the answers currently recorded in the catalogue. A missing or partial answer is not an eligibility decision.

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