The Right to Asylum in International Law: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?
22 Pages Posted: 1 Dec 2017 Last revised: 20 Apr 2019
Date Written: November 24, 2017
Abstract
The so-called refugee and migration crisis from 2015 onwards has shed new light on the status of the right to asylum and the non-refoulement principle. A survey of recent state practice shows that there is still not generally accepted universal individual right to asylum. On the con-trary, the international community as a whole and the EU in particular are increasingly reluc-tant to accept refugees on their territory. Nevertheless, states are not free to regulate the entry and stay of foreigners as they please. While the prohibition of extraditions, expulsions, or de-portations of individuals to countries where they face a serious risk of mistreatment remains untouched, Europe cooperates with transit countries to prevent asylum seekers from reaching its borders in the first place.
Keywords: international law, refugee law, asylum, human rights, european convention on human rights, refugee convention, non-refoulement, torture, inhuman treatment, degrading treatment, expulsion, deportations, european court of human rights, EU, European Union, Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
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