Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 5.djvu/55

 PUBLIC LAW 105-292—OCT. 27, 1998 112 STAT. 2813 guidelines to ensure uniform procedures for establishing agreements with United States Government-designated reftigee processing entities and personnel, and uniform procedures for such entities and personnel responsible for preparing refugee case files for use by the Immigration and Naturalization Service during refugee adjudications. These procedures should ensure, to the extent practicable, that case files prepared by such entities accurately reflect information provided by the refugee applicslnts and that genuine refugee applicants are not disadvantaged or denied refugee status due to faulty case file preparation. (d) ANNUAL CONSULTATION.—The President shall include in President. each annual report on proposed refugee admissions under section 207(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157(d)) information about religious persecution of refugee populations eligible for consideration for admission to the United States. The Secretary of State shall include information on religious persecution of refiigee populations in the formal testimony presented to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Senate during the consultation process under section 207(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157(e)). SEC. 603. REFORM OF ASYLUM POLICY. 22 USC 6473. (a) GUIDELINES.— The Attorney General and the Secretary of State shall develop guidelines to ensure that persons with potential biases against individuals on the grounds of religion, race, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, including interpreters and personnel of airlines owned by governments known to be involved in practices which would meet the definition of persecution under international refugee law, shall not in any manner be used to interpret conversations between aliens and inspection or asylum officers. (b) TRAINING FOR ASYLUM AND IMMIGRATION OFFICERS.— The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Ambassador at Large, and other relevant officials such as the Director of the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, shall provide training to all officers adjudicating asylum cases, and to immigration officers performing duties under section 235(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)), on the nature of religious persecution abroad, including country-specific conditions, instruction on the internationaly recognized right to freedom of religion, instruction on methods of religious persecution practiced in foreign countries, and applicable distinctions within a country in the treatment of various religious practices and believers. (c) TRAINING FOR IMMIGRATION JUDGES. —The Executive Office of Immigration Review of the Department of Justice shall incorporate into its initial and ongoing training of immigration judges training on the extent and nature of religious persecution internationaly, including country-specific conditions, and including use of the Annual Report. Such training shall include governmental and nongovernmental methods of persecution employed, and dif- ferences in the treatment of religious groups by such persecuting entities.

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