UK domestic law provides for the cessation of refugee status. Paragraph 338A of the Immigration Rules requires a person’s grant of refugee status to be revoked if any of paragraphs 339A, 339AA, 339AB or 339AC apply.1

The grounds for cessation appear in paragraph 339A. The Home Secretary is required to cease a person’s refugee status where circumstances indicate that the individual is no longer in need of international protection. Paragraph 339A reads as follows:

339A. This paragraph applies when the Secretary of State is satisfied that one or more of the following applies:

(i) they have voluntarily re-availed themselves of the protection of the country of nationality;

(ii) having lost their nationality, they have voluntarily re-acquired it;

(iii) they have acquired a new nationality, and enjoy the protection of the country of their new nationality;

(iv) they have voluntarily re-established themselves in the country which they left or outside which they remained owing to a fear of persecution;

(v) they can no longer, because the circumstances in connection with which they have been recognised as a refugee have ceased to exist, continue to refuse to avail themselves of the protection of the country of nationality; or

(vi) being a stateless person with no nationality, they are able, because the circumstances in connection with which they have been recognised as a refugee have ceased to exist, to return to the country of former habitual residence

In considering (v) and (vi), the Secretary of State shall have regard to whether the change of circumstances is of such a significant and non-temporary nature that the refugee’s fear of persecution can no longer be regarded as well-founded.

Criteria (i) to (vi) correspond directly to the cessation criteria in Article 1C(1) to (6) of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The final part of the paragraph provides somewhat different wording to that found in the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides that criteria (5) and (6) “shall not apply to a refugee […] who is able to invoke compelling reasons arising out of previous persecution for refusing to avail himself of the protection of the country of nationality”.

When refugee status is ceased, the individual loses the rights attached to refugee status under domestic law. They may, however, be granted an alternative form of immigration status in the UK if, for example, returning them to their country would not be in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

• 1Immigration Rules, Part 11: Asylum. Available at:  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-11-asylum.