Unit 4 AOS 1: Key Knowledge (People Movement) Flashcards
Refugee Definition
Article 1 of the Refugee Convention defines a refugee as…
“owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…”
Refugee Convention (1951/67)
- Recognized Refugees have a right to live, work and get educated in a country granting asylum
- The UNCHR acts as the ‘guardian’ of the Convention, states are expected to cooperate with us in ensuring that the rights of refugees are respected and protected
Noncompliance
- The UNCHR cannot enforce the convention, no body to monitor compliance
- States that disputes shall be settled at the ICJ (Article 38) but no state has ever done so
- Only consequences of violation are public shaming in the media and verbal condemnation by the UN and other states
Refugee Convention (1951/67) - Aims
To protect the rights of refugees
Ensure refugees cannot be expelled or returned to places where they might be persecuted
Refugee Convention (1951/67) - Key Protections
• Non-Refoulement (Article 33): Cannot be sent back to a place where they might be persecuted
• Non-Expulsion (Article 32): Refugees may not be arbitrarily expelled by a state
• Non-Penalisation (Article 31): Refugees may sometimes need to enter a country without permission or with false documents prior to claiming asylum. States may not punish asylum seekers for entering its territory unconventionally
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- The main UN organization that protects refugees
- The UNHCR leads and coordinates action for the protection of refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), asylum seekers, stateless people and former refugees. This group collectively is known as ‘people of concern’
- “Refugees have rights and protections under international law”
- $7 billion budget, more than 80% is spent on “field operations”
Powers - Provides and coordinates emergency relief for refugees
- Provides shelter, education and health services
- Advocates on behalf of refugees to governments, NGOs and the public for greater protection of refugees
- Research and analysis, monitoring and reporting
Criticisms
- Definition of refugee is outdated (notion of exile as a solution to refugee problems)
- Confers no right of assistance on refugees unless and until they reach a signatory country
- The asylum channel is providing an avenue for irregular migration and is linked with people smuggling and criminality
- Takes no account of the impact (eg. financial) of large numbers of asylum seekers on receiving countries
- Inequity of outcomes between ‘camp’ and ‘Convention’ refugees (priority to those present rather than those with greatest need)
- Gross disparity between what western countries spend on processing and supporting asylum seekers, and what they contribute to the UNCHR for the world refugee effort
- Asylum seekers do no elicit public sympathy in the wat that ‘obvious’ refugees o
- It has fostered simplistic and unfortunate characterisation of asylum seekers as either
political and thus ‘genuine’ and deserving, or economic and thus ‘abusive’ and underserving
Dublin Regulation of the EU (2013)
- Originally came into force 15 June 1990. Amended Dublin III Regulation came into force 19 July 2013
- An EU law setting out which country is responsible for looking at an individual’s asylum application (typically country of entry)
- Applies to EU Member States and Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein
- Due to Brexit in 2020, the UK is no longer bound by the regulation
- Supplemented by EURODAC: a Europe-wide fingerprinting database for unauthorized entrants to EU
Dublin Regulation of the EU (2013) - Aims
Prevent an applicant from submitting applications in multiple Member States
Reduce the number of “orbiting” asylum seekers, who are shuttled from member state to member state
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (1990)
- A United Nations multilateral treaty governing the protection of migrant workers and families
- Does not create new rights for migrants but aims at guaranteeing equality of treatment, and the same working conditions, including in case of temporary work, for migrants and nationals
- The Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) monitors implementation of the convention
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (1990) - Aims
Protect migrant workers and members of their families (its existence sets a moral standard)
Serve as a guide and stimulus for the promotion of migrant rights in each country
EU Migrant Crisis
- The Arab Spring occurred in 2010/11, which sparked widespread civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa
- Asylum seekers fled to Europe to escape persecution, conflict or collapsing economies
- The Syrian Civil War, the emergence of Islamic State and the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan all exacerbated the situation.
- In 2015, roughly one million asylum seekers arrived in Europe – the single highest year.
- Three in four refugees came from Syria (47%), Afghanistan (21%) or Iraq (9%).
- Recent years has seen a decline in the crisis – 200,000 migrants crossed to Europe in 2017.
Statistics
- Huge numbers of migrants (1.2 million in 2015)
- In April 2015, over 600 people drowned in the Mediterranean in just one incident. In total 2600 people drowned in 2015
- 71 bodies were recovered from a refrigerated truck abandoned near the Hungarian border
Germany Response - Cosmopolitanism
- “We are a country that puts the dignity of every single human being at the centre of things. And if you are facing a humanitarian catastrophe like the one in Syria, you have to take a stand”. (Angela Merkel)
- Had an ‘open door’ policy, accepted 890,000 refugees in 2015
- Rejected the Dublin Regulation
Hungary Response - Realism
- Hungary shut border with Serbia, ending two decades of open EU borders and leading to a scramble for border security by other member states
- Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary said the EU cannot impose immigrant quotas on Hungary against the will of the country’s parliament (which he controls with a large majority)
- “We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We seem them as Muslim invaders” – Viktor Orban
- In 2018 Hungary passed the ‘Stop Soros’ bill, which criminalized giving aid to undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers
- “Migration is the Trojan wooden horse of terrorism” – Viktor Orban
- Constructed a 175km, 4m high ‘anti-migration’ fence along its border with Serbia
- Stated that the EU was “too slow to act”, and started construction of the barrier in June 2015
Australia / Operation Sovereign Borders (2013-Present)
- 2013, PM Kevin Rudd announced the ‘PNG Deal’ (states any maritime asylum seeker arrivals will be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing), If found to be genuine refugees, they will remain ‘resettled’ on PNG
- 2013, PM Tony Abbot launched ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ (OSB) any maritime arrivals were deemed ‘illegal’, and boats were ‘turned back’ where this was deemed safe
- Since implementation of OSB, this has included 33 vessels and 827 people up to 2018
- The policy claims to protect Australia’s borders, punish people smugglers and deter asylum seekers from making the perilous journey by boat, thereby saving lives
- 2014, OSB turns back a boat entering Australian waters. 2 asylum seekers who were earlier intercepted on a different vessel were put on the boat which was sent back to Indonesia
- 2015, Australian authorities pay an Indonesian boat crew to transport their vessel – with 65 asylum seekers on board – back to Indonesia
- 2022, on election day, Australia announced they had turned back a vessel from Sri Lanka
- Australia is a signatory to the Refugee Convention and is obligated to provide sanctuary to these people fleeing persecution in other countries, and to process their asylum claims
- However, Australia uses detention as a punitive measure to deter other asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat under the umbrella of ‘national security’
AUS/NZ Deal to Resettle Refugees
• Deal accepted by Scott Morrison in 2022
• The deal will see 150 refugees who were held in offshore detention resettled in New Zealand every year for three years (total 450)
• A significant number of refugees will still remain in detention
• Then Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, reaffirmed Australia’s tough stance despite the deal, “Australia remains firm — illegal maritime arrivals will not settle here permanently”
EU-Turkey Deal
- Signed in March 2016, leaders of EU countries made a controversial deal with Turkey with the intention of halting illegal migration flows to Europe in return for financial and political rewards
- Main aims were to reduce pressure on Europe’s borders and dissuade further refugees from heading to Europe
- Known as the ‘One In, One Out’ policy
- Under the pact, Turkey would take back all undocumented migrants who crossed to Greece, including Syrians
- In exchange, the European Union agreed to resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey on a one-to-one basis, reduce visa restrictions for Turkish citizens, pay 6 billion euros in aid to Turkey for Syrian migrant communities, update the customs union, and re-energize stalled talks regarding Turkey’s accession to the European Union.
