FMR 68 – Externalisation
With States increasingly taking action beyond their own borders to prevent the arrival of refugees and asylum seekers, we examine the consequences for protection.
Denmark’s new externalisation law: motives and consequences
On 4th February 2021, the Danish Social Democratic government sent out a legislative proposal (known as L226) for civil society consultations. L226 proposed shutting down all processing of asylum claims and granting of residence to refugees on Danish territory, barring…
From the editors
In recent years, some States have been pursuing increasingly restrictive policies and practices in order to deter refugees and asylum seekers from reaching their borders. Authors in this issue’s main feature discuss the emergence of these policies of ‘externalisation’, reflect…
Externalisation of international protection: UNHCR’s perspective
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…
Conceptualising externalisation: still fit for purpose?
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,…
Why resettlement quotas cannot replace asylum systems
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 Some believe that the 1951 Refugee Convention is outdated and that the…
Pushbacks on the Balkan route: a hallmark of EU border externalisation
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…
Frontex cooperation with third countries: examining the human rights implications
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…
Extraterritorial asylum processing: the Libya-Niger Emergency Transit Mechanism
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…
From complementary to ‘primary’ pathways to asylum: a word on the ‘right to flee’
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,…