Country of origin evidence you can defend.
Provenance helps asylum decision-makers assemble, weigh and cite country-of-origin information. It shows why every source was retrieved and how it is weighted, keeps a record of every query — and leaves the judgment to you.
What it does
Research support, built to be examined
Searches the sources that count
Government, UN, NGO and news reporting, searched in priority order. Place-name variants and related terms are proposed and confirmed before anything runs, so material filed under a different spelling or a different word isn't missed.
Shows why each source appeared
Every result carries a short quotation from the document itself, marking which term matched — and whether it was the phrase you searched or a broader one you agreed to. The words are the source's, not ours.
Weighs reliability across separate axes
Independence, transparency, first-hand evidence, coverage, currency, remit and standing are shown side by side and never averaged into one number. A single score would hide exactly what makes a ranking arguable.
Counts corroboration honestly
Sources reporting the same claim are grouped, and likely reposts of a single original are flagged rather than counted again. Ten copies of one report are one account, not ten.
Keeps the record
Every query, the terms and place names confirmed, and the results as shown are written to an append-only, hash-chained record — so the search behind a submission can be reproduced and inspected later.
Keeps personal data apart
Claimant details are held separately from the query record and can be erased on their own schedule, without breaking the audit trail. Only a minimal profile ever reaches an external service.
What it does not do
The limits are the point
- It does not decide cases. Provenance retrieves and ranks source material. It draws no conclusion about a claim, and makes no recommendation about an outcome.
- It does not replace reading the source. Every result links to the original, and the quotations are deliberately short. They are there to help you judge relevance, not to stand in for the document.
- It does not hide its reasoning. Rankings are explained by their inputs rather than asserted. If you disagree with one, you can see precisely what produced it.
- It does not decide independence for you. Where sources may not be independent of one another, that is flagged for review — never quietly resolved.
Status
In development
Provenance is being built now. The audit record, the case and query service, and the retrieval layer are working; source partnerships and the reviewing interface are in progress.
We are talking to legal-aid practitioners and refugee-status decision-making bodies about pilots. If you assemble country-of-origin evidence and would be willing to tell us what actually slows you down, we would like to hear from you.
Last updated August 2026