To: pcstel who wrote (80688 ) 7/1/2018 10:19:18 PM From: GPS Info Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 354322 It also doesn't qualify for asylum under International Law. Sorry! Is that "sorry" sarcasm?! It could seem that way for someone running for their lives.en.wikipedia.org Asylum has three basic requirements. First, an asylum applicant must establish that he or she fears persecution in their home country. [3] Second, the applicant must prove that he or she would be persecuted on account of one of five protected grounds: race , religion , nationality , political opinion , or particular social group . Third, an applicant must establish that the government is either involved in the persecution, or unable to control the conduct of private actors. Could "private actors" be the drug cartels and criminal gangs?Particular social group (PSG ) is one of five categories that may be used to claim refugee status according to two key United Nations documents: the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees . The other four categories are race , religion , nationality , and political opinion . As the most ambiguous and open-ended of the categories, the PSG category has been the subject of considerable debate and controversy in refugee law. [1] [2] Note that just as with the other four categories, membership in a PSG is not sufficient grounds for being granted refugee status. Rather, to be granted refugee status, one must both demonstrate membership in one of the five categories (race, religion, nationality, particular political opinion, and particular social group) and a nexus between that membership and persecution one is facing or risks facing . [3] [4] PSG determination is part of the general refugee determination process in most countries that are signatories to the 1951 Convention. In particular, these decisions are made by the immigration bureaucracies, immigration courts, and the general courts (to which immigration decisions may need to be appealed). Past decisions create guidelines and precedents for future decisions in the same country. In general, decisions in one country do not create precedents for decisions in other countries, but there is some influence through the influence on periodically updated UNHCR guidelines and through lawyers' use of these cases. Two particularly seminal decisions influencing PSG determination worldwide have been Matter of Acosta (1985, United States), and Ward (1993, Canada). Examples of PSGs identified in various countries include women (and various subsets thereof), homosexuals and others with non-mainstream sexual orientations, specific families, and the poor . [5 Priority Onepersons facing compelling security concerns in countries of first asylum; persons in need of legal protection because of the danger of refoulement; those in danger due to threats of armed attack in an area where they are located; or persons who have experienced recent persecution because of their political, religious, or human rights activities (prisoners of conscience); women-at-risk; victims of torture or violence , physically or mentally disabled persons; persons in urgent need of medical treatment not available in the first asylum country; and persons for whom other durable solutions are not feasible and whose status in the place of asylum does not present a satisfactory long-term solution. – UNHCR Resettlement Handbook [ citation needed ]