The EUAA Country of Origin Information (COI) gathers relevant information and draws up reports providing for accurate, reliable and up to date information on third countries to support EU+ asylum and migration authorities in reaching accurate and fair decisions in asylum procedures, or support policy making. For that purpose, the Agency established Country Specialist Networks that collaborate to avoid duplication and create synergies with national COI production. COI refers to, inter alia, the political, religious and security situation and to violations of human rights, including torture and ill-treatment in the third countries concerned. The EUAA activities include general COI and medical COI (MedCOI).
The EUAA gathers information about countries of origin, habitual residence, and transit used in procedures for the individual assessment of applications for international protection. COI may also be used in the context of non-asylum related migration cases. COI aims to answer questions about countries of origin relating to, for example, the socio-economic, legal, political, human rights, conflict, and humanitarian situation at a given time.
COI facilitates and supports decision-making processes but does not dictate decisions. It is distinct from country guidance and legal assessments. COI constitutes evidence in the international protection procedure and is important in making a fact-based assessment of international protection needs.
The EUAA provides access to medical country of origin information (MedCOI). This information supports the national migration and asylum authorities in Europe to reach accurate and fair decisions in international protection and other migration procedures. MedCOI is a service for national migration and asylum authorities solely, providing responses to requests for information about the availability and accessibility of medical interventions in countries of origin.
EUAA MedCOI relies on a worldwide network of medical experts that provides up-to-date medical information in countries of origin. Based on this information and combined with desk research, the EUAA produces responses to individual requests from EU+ countries and maintains a portal with a specific database where the information can be found. The portal also allows for the continuous exchange of information between countries, and between countries and the EUAA. The database is only accessible to trained personnel in EUAA and the EU+ countries’ relevant administrations (MB Decision / MedCOI Database Access Policy).
EUAA MedCOI also produces public general medical country reports that can be found together with the EUAA general COI reports.
The high quality and medical accuracy of the information is guaranteed by specifically trained medical advisors and research experts who also provide guidance to the users of the portal.
EUAA MedCOI is continuously subject to internal and external quality assurance activities such as validations, audits, and peer reviews.