Timor-Leste ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees in December 2022. The 1951 Convention provides the internationally recognised definition of a refugee and sets out the legal protection, rights, and assistance a refugee is entitled to receive. The 1967 Protocol removes the Convention’s original geographical and temporal limits, extending its protection to all persons fleeing persecution or conflict. However, Timor-Leste has made reservations in respect of Articles 16(2), 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. These reservations allow Timor-Leste to give refugees and asylum-seekers different rights as that of its own citizens in respect of access to courts, rationing, housing, public education, public assistance, labour and social security. 

Timor-Leste is not a party to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, which establishes a framework for the international protection of stateless persons, nor to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which sets rules for the conferral and non-withdrawal of citizenship to prevent cases of statelessness from arising. That said, Timor-Leste’s Law No 9/2002 on Citizenship incorporates some of the key safeguards outlined in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, despite Timor-Leste not being a signatory of this Convention (see below).

In addition to its obligations under the aforementioned international instruments to which it has acceded, Timor-Leste is obligated to respect the international customary legal principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits any country from deporting any person to a country where they face the threat of persecution.     

Timor-Leste has also ratified several other international legal instruments that also relate to treatment of refugees, including the:

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which sets out protections for a wide range of human rights, including freedom from torture and other cruel or unusual punishment, fair trial rights, equality, and non-discrimination;
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which ensures the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights to education, fair and just working conditions, adequate standards of living, social security, and the highest attainable standard of health;
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which protects children’s rights and obliges public bodies to consider children’s best interests; 
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which sets out provisions to ensure women’s full enjoyment of human rights on an equal basis with men; 
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which obliges signatories to take action to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination;
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which seeks to eliminate disability discrimination and safeguard the rights of disabled people; 
• International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW), which sets standards for national laws and procedures to protect migrant workers’ rights; and
• Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which requires signatories to take effective measures to prevent acts of torture.

Article 10 of Timor-Leste’s 2002 Constitution provides that Timor-Leste grants political asylum “to foreigners persecuted as a result of their struggle for national and social liberation, defense of human rights, democracy and peace.”

Refugee and asylum related matters in Timor-Leste are regulated by the Law of Migration and Asylum of 2017 (Asylum Law), which replaced the 2003 law relating to the same. Chapter VIII of the Asylum Law specifically addresses the rights of refugees in Timor-Leste. The core principle of the Asylum Law as outlined in Article 91 is as follows:

“the right of asylum is guaranteed to aliens and stateless persons persecuted or seriously threatened with persecution as a result of an activity carried out in the State of their nationality or habitual residence in favour of democracy, social and national liberation, peace between peoples, freedom and the human rights.” 

The Asylum Law also extends rights to refugees who cannot or do not want to return to their home country or habitual residence on the basis of “fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or integration in a certain social group” (Art. 91). The effects of asylum are extended to the spouse and minor children, adopted or dependent disabled (Art. 95).

Claims for asylum under the Asylum Law are managed and decided upon by the Migration Service of Timor-Leste.  The Migration Service of Timor-Leste is attached to the Timor-Leste Ministry of Interior.

While the Asylum Law establishes a general right to asylum in Timor-Leste, certain factors may disqualify an individual from such rights (Art. 93). These factors include (among other things):      

1. the refugee is protected or assisted by a body of the United Nations other than the UNHCR;
2. the refugee resides in a country whose competent authorities consider that the refugee has the rights and duties of a national of that country; 
3. the refugee is considered to have committed a serious crime (such as war crime or crime punishable by more than three years of imprisonment);
4. the refugee is considered a threat to security or public order;
5. the refugee’s application does not satisfy any of the criteria set out in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees;
6. the application is fraudulent or constitutes an abuse of the asylum procedure;
7. the refugee is a national or habitual resident of a country which qualifies as a safe country or host third country; and
8. the application is unjustifiably submitted after the 72 hour deadline for submission following the Refugee’s entry into Timor-Leste. 

Timor-Leste grants residence permits for up to a year to victims of human trafficking or victims of a network of aid to illegal immigration (Art. 61), and “in exceptional cases of recognized national or humanitarian interest”, in particular if (i) there is strong evidence that the person might be subjected to torture, degrading treatment or punishment, or (ii) there are serious suspicions that this return will put his or her physical integrity in danger (Art. 62).

As regards the rights of Stateless people, the Law No 9/2002 on Citizenship incorporates some of the key safeguards outlined in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, despite Timor-Leste not being a signatory of this Convention. For instance, Timor-Leste citizenship cannot be lost as a result of residence abroad, and there are safeguards to ensure that Timor-Leste citizenship cannot be renounced without the acquisition of another nationality. There is a broad Constitutional protection preventing the arbitrary deprivation of nationality. In addition, children of “incognito parents, stateless parents or parents of unknown citizenship” born on Timor-Leste territory may acquire Timor-Leste citizenship automatically. 

Timor-Leste is obligated to respect the international customary legal principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits any country from deporting any person to a country where they face the threat of persecution, pursuant to article 2(s) of the Asylum Law.