International vs. National Protection for Refugees ...€¦ · Hondurans by Mexico and U.S,...

April 10, 2019 Event

International vs. National

Protection for Refugees:

Diverging Trends?

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David FitzGeraldUniversity of California,

San Diego

@FitzGeraldUCSD

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1939. Rejection of St. Louis

Frank family’s application for a U.S. visa, 1941

Anne Frank, died at Bergen-Belsen, 1945

How can a refugee reach a place of sanctuary?

Less than 1% of world’s refugees are resettled

Little or no access to “diplomatic asylum” at embassies and consulates

In the handful of very small programs to apply in-country, risks of revealing intentions to persecutors

Territorial asylum

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Non-refoulement:

Protection against return to a country where a person has reason to fear persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion- 1951 UN Refugee Convention/ 1967 Protocol - 148 states, including U.S., are party

Prohibits the forced return of anyone facing torture- 1984 UN Convention against Torture- 162 states, , including U.S., are party

States evade asylum regime by manipulating territoriality

“Remote control” pushes out border control far beyond the state’s territory

(extra-territorialization)

Simultaneously, states restrict access to asylum and “territorial rights of personhood” by making micro distinctions at border line

(hyper-territorialization)

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Modern remote control is a global system:

Architecture of repulsion: cages, domes, moats, buffers, & barbicans

Functions of structures linked to one another

Circulation of knowledge, coercive capacity, funding

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The Cage

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UNHCR Zaatari camp, Jordan

Australia’s “offshore processing”

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The Dome

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The Moat

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250,000 people intercepted by U.S. Coast Guard, 1982-2015

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0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000Haiti

Dominican Republic

China

Cuba

Ecuador

Other

Source: US Coast Guard 2016.

Note: Does not include Mexico

The Euro-Moat

States intercepting boats on high seas cannot refoule passengers - European Court of Human Rights, Hirsi Jamaaand Others v. Italy (2012)

Italian solution: pay Libyan coast guard and militias to intercept, detain, & deport

17 Source: Reuters 2017, UNICEF 2017

“The Guatemalan border with Chiapas is now our southern border.”– Alan Bersin, DHS Assistant Secretary for Policy, 2012

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The Buffer

Deportations of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans by Mexico and U.S, 1990-2017

19Sources: Boletines Estadísticos 2001-2017, SEGOB; Casillas

2008: 159; INS and DHS Yearbooks and Enforcement Reports,

1992-2017

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

The Barbican

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Comments welcomed

David FitzGerald

University of California,

San Diego

dfitzgerald@ucsd.edu

@FitzGeraldUCSD

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