Date of publication:

09/22/2026

Burkina Faso

Do domestic laws and policies provide for the cessation of refugee status?

ANALYSIS

Assessment by population

Assessment by population
Refugees
Analysis

Burkina Faso’s Law No. 042-2008/AN of 23 October 2008 incorporates these cessation criteria in Article 18, stating that refugee status ceases when the refugees:

  • have voluntarily re-availed themselves of the protection of the country of their nationality​;
  • having lost their nationality​, they have voluntarily reacquired it;
  • have acquired a new nationality, and enjoy the protection of the country of their new nationality;
  • have voluntarily re-established themselves in the country which they left or outside of which they remained owing to fear of persecution;
  • the circumstance​s in connexion to which they have been recognized as refugees have ceased to exist and they can no longer continue to refuse to avail themselves of the protection of the country of their nationality;
  • reliable information emerged after they were officially recognized as a refugee, suggesting that they should not have been granted refugee status;
  • being a person who has no nationality he is, because the circumstances in connexion with which he has been recognized as a refugee have ceased to exist, able to return to the country of his former habitual residence.

Note: the ground of "reliable information emerged" is not a cessation clause under international law but instead a possible ground for cancellation of refugee status (see answer on cancellation).