International cooperation has always been indispensable to the effective functioning of the international regime for refugee protection. The drafters of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) explicitly acknowledged this, recognising that as the challenge of…
Since its emergence in the early 2000s, the term ‘externalisation’ seems to have developed into an umbrella concept encompassing any migration control measure affecting refugees undertaken either unilaterally or multilaterally, either extraterritorially or with extraterritorial effects. Despite its ubiquitous use,…
Time and again, ideas to phase out the right to asylum in its current form circulate among politicians, experts and even academics in a number of European countries. Some believe that the 1951 Refugee Convention is outdated and that the…
As practitioners working for Josoor, the only organisation focused on supporting survivors of pushbacks from Greece and Bulgaria based in Turkey, we systematically document testimonies of survivors and other evidence of human rights violations from the European border regime. Together…
Since its establishment in 2004, Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard – EBCG – Agency) has become an important vehicle for implementing the EU’s externalisation policies. Its arrangements with States of origin and transit are designed to prevent onwards…
In late 2017, UNHCR, the European Union (EU) and Niger attracted international attention by presenting the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) as a humanitarian solution to the well-documented torture and exploitation of asylum seekers and refugees in Libya. Implemented with funding…
Containment, externalisation and the ‘irregularisation’ of mobility are some of the strategies used by States to impede or deter asylum seekers’ entry into their territories so as to avoid protection-related responsibilities.[1] Despite their incompatibility with global solidarity and responsibility sharing,…
This article highlights the ways in which various actors have engaged in externalised migration management cooperation in a manner that leaves little room for judicial scrutiny and accountability. It builds upon prior research by the authors which examined how externalisation…
Asylum seekers, and maritime arrivals in particular, were a contentious topic in the period leading up to the 2013 Australian federal elections. The preceding years had seen a rise in the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat and this…
Since August 2012, more than 4,000 people attempting to reach Australia by sea have been subject to offshore processing in ‘regional processing countries’ (RPCs) Nauru and Papua New Guinea. From July 2013, Australia’s policy under Operation Sovereign Borders has barred…