Refugees: The Risk of Using Language as a Passport

Nine European countries apply a controversial linguistic test to check for the origin of undocumented asylum seekers. This technique, called LADO (Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin) has been questioned by courts and agencies in the UK and Sweden, after a chain of wrong nationality attributions.

A harsh academic battle is in place among linguists on which LADO method, if any, yields reliable results. However, the issue is not on the European Commission's agenda. On the contrary: the agreement signed by the European Union and Turkey on refugee management includes LADO in its toolbox.

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