DASS

Citations

• 20 I. & N. Dec. 120

Syllabus

DASS, 20 I&N Dec. 120 (BIA 1989) ID 3122 (PDF) (1) As an asylum applicantbears the evidentiary burden of proof and persuasion, where there aresignificant, meaningful evidentiary gaps, the applications ordinarilywill be denied for failure of proof. (2) While we adhere tothe holding in Matter of Mogharrabi, 19 I&N Dec. 439 (BIA 1987), thatthe lack of corroboration for an asylum applicant's testimony will notnecessarily be fatal to his application, this does not mean that the introduction of supporting evidence is purely an option with an asylum applicant in the ordinary case the general rule is that such evidence should be presentedif it is available. (3) Background evidencemay be needed to evaluate the credibilit y of an asylum applicant's testimonyas the basis for an asylum claim becomes less focused on specific eventsinvolving the alien personally and instead is more directed to broad allegationsregarding general conditions in the alien's country of origin, corroborativebackground evidence to establish a plausible context for the claim maybecome essential, or alternatively an acceptable explanation for the absenceof such evidence may become necessary. (4) It was proper toconclude that the asylum applicant failed to establish a well-foundedfear of persecution where his persecution claim was based on sweepingclaims about persecution by the Government of India, as well as on thealien's testimony regarding his own circumstances, and he did not providebackground evidence to corroborate the claims about the Government ofIndia.