Browsing by Subject "Migration control"

During the year 2022, the total number of forcibly displaced persons reached 100 million for the first time on record, and in June 2022, the total number of refugees was 27.1 million. In the meanwhile, the use of more extensive and restrictive migration control measures continues to be a trend, as a variety of new policies aimed at deterring migration continue to be adopted around the world. Many of these measures and policies reach outside of the national territories of states and can be described as measures of externalisation of migration control. In this master’s thesis, the externalisation of migration control is explored against the obligations arising from the international legal framework of refugee protection. The thesis seeks to research the phenomenon through the following research questions: 1) What is the international legal framework surrounding the externalisation of migration control? 2) What kind of migration control measures and externalisation practices are adopted by states? 3) What is the legal basis for the extra-territorial actions taken by states and how does it affect their international obligations? The adopted research methodology is inclined to criticism, and thus intends to question the current international legal regime concerning refugee protection and its ability to respond to the refugee problems in a constructive manner. The sources of this thesis consist of international treaties and conventions, as well as national and international judicial decision, writings of legal publicists, and guidance, resolutions, expert opinions, and consultations of non-governmental bodies such as the UNHCR and the Executive Committee. Even though the main international legal instrument on refugee protection, the 1951 Refugee Convention, calls for international cooperation and distribution of burdens in its Preamble, in reality, states are moving more to the direction of responsibility shifting. Through a variety of arrangements, policies, and measures explored in this thesis, states have managed reduce the number of refugees and asylum-seekers arriving to their borders and entering their territories. As a consequence, the unequal distribution of the refugee burden remains unresolved.