Interception and Asylum: When Migration Control and Human Rights Collide

Andrew Brouwer; Judith Kumin

doi:10.25071/1920-7336.21305

Interception and Asylum: When Migration Control and Human Rights Collide

Authors

Andrew Brouwer Canadian Council for Refugees
Judith Kumin Carleton University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.21305

Keywords:

interception, irregular migration, asylum, refugee protection, law, human rights

Abstract

Preoccupied with sovereign control of access to their territories, states are devoting increasing energy and resources to intercepting and turning back migrants before they arrive at their borders. Interception measures, however, rarely include adequate procedures to distinguish those who need protection from those who do not. As a result, desperate people are left with no option but to resort to ever more dangerous and disruptive methods of migration. This article surveys the main types of interception measures and their effects, and examines the international refugee and human rights law issues raised by these practices. It then reviews recent developments at the level of UNHCR’s Executive Committee with regard to interception and concludes with some suggestions for building compliance with principles of refugee protection in the context of interception measures.

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Published

2003-12-01

How to Cite

Brouwer, A., & Kumin, J. (2003). Interception and Asylum: When Migration Control and Human Rights Collide. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 21(4), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.21305

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Issue

Vol. 21 No. 4 (2003): Interdiction at the Expense of Human Rights

Section

Feature Articles

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Refuge authors retain the copyright over their work, and license it to the general public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows for non-commercial use, reproduction and adaption of the material in any medium or format, with proper attribution. For general information on Creative Commons licences, visit the Creative Commons site. For the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, review the human readable summary.