Following the passage of controversial proposals on the EURODAC database of asylum applicants' and refugees' fingerprints,Greens\/EFA MEPs protest the erosion of asylum seekers' basic rights, 2013. wikicommons\/Greensafe. Some rights reserved.The
\npractice of making and granting claims of asylum based on persecution is one of
\nthe most concrete expressions of human rights. Yet after more than sixty years,
\nthe refugee regime is facing an existential threat. While Donald Trump\u2019s latest
\nexecutive order[1]
\nhas delivered the greatest blow, European states have weakened the regime by
\nrefusing to receive and resettle refugees and through their use of discriminatory
\npolicies of selection. Regrettably even liberal minded voices are undermining the
\nhuman rights architecture upon which the refugee regime is based.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
The It By Refugee While The With Building Collier \u2018[Yet] today\u2019s refugees are overwhelmingly fleeing This Rather We [1] See [2] UN High [3] Niki Kitsantonis, \u2018Greece\u2019s Top Court Rejects [4] Kristy [5] European [6] Alexander [7] Rebecca Buxton [8] Paul Hockenos Following the passage of controversial proposals on the EURODAC database of asylum applicants' and refugees' fingerprints,Greens\/EFA MEPs protest the erosion of asylum seekers' basic rights, 2013. wikicommons\/Greensafe. Some rights reserved.The practice of making and granting claims of asylum based on persecution is one of the most concrete expressions of human rights. Yet after more than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1951 Refugee Convention does not define persecution.\u00a0 It is a curious but historical fact that
\nneither Article 1, which introduces the definition of a refugee, nor the term
\n\u2018persecution\u2019 feature much in the initial analysis of the Travaux
\nPr\u00e9paratoires<\/em> which detail the discussions that gave way to the Refugee
\nConvention.[2]\u00a0 Rather, Paul Weis\u2019s celebrated analysis
\nbegins with Article 2 on the general obligations of refugees. In spite of this
\nomission, legal scholars have held that persecution connotes \u2018injurious\u2019 or \u2018oppressive
\naction\u2019 which is informed by human rights standards in the country from which
\nthe asylum seeker has fled.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\nis specifically this linkage to human rights which underpins the way claims are
\nevaluated and which is crucial for the preservation of asylum. That is why the
\ndecision by Greece\u2019s Supreme Court this week regarding the claims of eight
\nTurkish officers accused of involvement in the failed Turkish coup is so very
\nimportant.[3]\u00a0 Rather than bow to political pressure, for
\nfear of upsetting a neighbouring NATO member state, the Court ruled that the
\ndefendants faced human rights violations if the request for extradition to
\nTurkey was upheld. The Court\u2019s decision unequivocally affirmed the right to
\nseek and receive political asylum. That is why the decision by Greece\u2019s Supreme Court this week
\nregarding the claims of eight Turkish officers accused of involvement in the
\nfailed Turkish coup is so very important.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ncontrast, Trump\u2019s draft executive order blatantly illustrates how geopolitical
\nconcerns may interfere with the protection of refugee rights. The draft,
\nentitled, \u201cProtecting the Nation From Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals\u2019,
\nintroduces a temporary ban on particular nationalities who are excluded from the
\nUS resettlement programme. This applies to refugees from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya,
\nSomalia, Sudan and Yemen. The draft order caps refugee admissions at just
\n50,000 and also bars nationals from those states, even those holding visas,
\nfrom entering the USA. It is not just that refugees from Syria, Iraq and
\nSomalia make up more than half the world\u2019s refugee population, the order is
\nfundamentally discriminatory even against those fleeing IS, Al-Shabab, and
\nother oppressive regimes. <\/p>\n
\nsupport organisations based in the USA have already noted that in the absence
\nof the US resettlement scheme, more refugees from those states will be pressed
\nto take their chances crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe.[4] Yet,
\nhere too, European states have also cherry picked among those they wish to
\nconsider for refugee status. This is most clearly evidenced in Greece, a
\ncountry which is now holding tens of thousands of people who have been denied
\nthe right to relocation offered only to nationals who have an average EU-wide
\nasylum recognition rate equal to or higher than 75 per cent.[5]
\nThe scheme covers Syrians, Iraqis and Eritreans but leaves out Afghans,
\nIranians, and Pakistanis. What is more, the scheme only covers those in Greece
\nbefore 20 March 2016 when the EU-Turkey deal came into effect.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\nGreece will be left to process claims for tens of thousands of non-privileged asylum-seekers,
\nthe emerging consensus is that by restricting the flow of refugees to developed
\nstates by offering incentives to lesser developed states to house them,
\nrefugees will be able to find protection elsewhere \u2013 increasingly in oppressive
\nstates like Turkey and Ethiopia. The fact that large groups of refugees are
\ngeographically contained has given rise to further security and development
\ninitiatives, most notably the expansion of mobility partnerships and common
\nagendas. Although these arrangements differ from one state to another, and
\nwhile full mobility partnerships offer some visa facilitation to generally
\nhighly skilled nationals on the premise of signed readmission agreements, they
\nhave no basis in EU law. The overarching focus is cooperation on matters of
\nsecurity and irregular migration in return for aid. In effect, these programmes
\ndeny refugees the right to freedom of movement and in so doing also close off
\nsafe and legal routes to seek asylum. <\/p>\n
\nEU-Turkey deal is perhaps the most egregious example of a mobility style partnership
\nwhere, in exchange for blocking the flow of refugees to Europe, Turkey has
\nreceived billions of euros in aid and Erdogan\u2019s abuses have been tolerated. While
\nmost refugees have been unaffected by the post-coup clampdown, more than 800
\npeople have been returned from the EU to Turkey, some sent to inhospitable
\ndetention centres, as reported by Human Rights Watch. Similarly, the
\npartnership with Ethiopia has been welcomed even though it may be perceived as
\na fig leaf to a regime which has killed more than 500 peaceful protestors and
\nis not stemming the flow of irregular migrants to the southern Mediterranean. <\/p>\n
\nlarge numbers of refugees contained in the Global South and Middle East, some
\nscholars and development experts have militated for a new paradigm based on the
\ncreation of special economic zones. Most notably, Oxford University Professors
\nPaul Collier and Alexander Betts have proposed that through such zones, jobs
\ncan be brought to refugees.[6] \u00a0Yet, these can only function on the basis that
\nmobility rights are effectively curtailed.\u00a0
\nThe focus is pragmatic and overwhelmingly centres on livelihoods, not
\naccess to civil and eventually to political rights which is effected through
\nthe refugee route of asylum and integration. <\/p>\n
\nupon this logic, Betts argued that diasporas could also play their role in
\nhelping to further transition in their countries of origin. In response, two Oxford
\nUniversity students challenged their professor, claiming that it is ethically
\nwrong to see refugees as \u2018political resources\u2019 and that this formulation may
\nundermine individual agency.[7] It
\nis also na\u00efve. As Paul Hockenos records in Homeland Calling<\/em>[8], a
\nbook which describes how diasporas from the former Yugoslavia behaved during
\nthe Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, many diasporas house interfering chauvinists
\nand even when they vote for democrats and appear to have the trappings of
\nsettled Americans, Canadians or Europeans, their views towards their countries
\nof birth or sentimental attachment may be considerably less enlightened. Two Oxford University students challenged their professor,
\nclaiming that it is ethically wrong to see refugees as \u2018political resources\u2019.
\nIt is also na\u00efve.<\/p>\n
\nhas also condemned the Refugee Convention as anachronistic and too focused on
\nthe protection of individual rights, rather than collective realities. Writing
\nin the Financial Times<\/em> in September
\n2016, he
\nargued:<\/p>\n
\nmass disorder rather than state persecution, and none of the countries that are
\nhavens to most of the world\u2019s refugees are signatories to the convention.
\nMeanwhile, a handful of specialist lawyers has tortured the meaning of words,
\nresulting in an indefensibly inconsistent patchwork of international
\npractices.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nis simply inaccurate. The reasons why many failed states have generated large
\nnumbers of refugees are often the result of political inequality which may
\nmanifest as societal discrimination and persecution by both state and non-state
\nactors. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and now South Sudan are emblematic of
\nthe contemporary refugee-producing state, where large numbers are expressly
\nfleeing as a result of well-founded fear of persecution.\u00a0 Moreover, we return to the fact that the
\nreasons why large numbers of refugees are concentrated in states which have not
\nratified the Refugee Convention is not only the failure of past development
\nefforts but also a reflection of their lack of options and the absence of safe
\nand legal routes out of these regions. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nthan think of refugees as potential agents of terror, or as the condition for
\nreceiving aid, as tools for economic development or political reform, why not
\nthink of them as people in need of protection? \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nneed to stop downgrading refugee protection and accept that for millions of
\nrefugees persecution is the principal reason for flight today as it was before,
\nduring and after the Holocaust. In so doing, we would be affirming the importance
\nof human rights and the rationale behind the refugee regime which remains more
\nrelevant than ever.<\/p>\n
\n
\nHuffington Post, Read
\nDraft Text Of Trump\u2019s Executive Order Limiting Muslim Entry To The U.S.
\n(EXCLUSIVE), 25 January 2017. <\/p>\n
\nCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The Refugee Convention,
\n1951: The Travaux pr\u00e9paratoires analysed with a Commentary by Dr. Paul Weis<\/em>,
\n1990<\/p>\n
\nExtradition of Turkish Officers\u2019, The New
\nYork Times,\u00a0 26 January 2017 <\/p>\n
\nSiegfried, Trump
\nactions set to derail global refugee resettlement efforts, IRIN, 26 January
\n2017 <\/p>\n
\nAgenda on Migration \u2013 Legislative
\ndocuments <\/p>\n
\nBetts & Paul Collier, \u2018How to Help Syrians – Let Displaced Syrians Join the
\nLabor Market\u2019, Foreign Affairs<\/em>, Nov\/Dec 2015.<\/p>\n
\nand Theophilus Kwek, \u2018Refugees
\nare not Political Resources: A Reply to Alexander Betts\u2019, IRIN, 26 January
\n2016<\/p>\n
\n(2003), Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism and the Balkan Wars, Cornell
\nUniversity Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"