International cooperation on refugees: deterrence and solutions

This project explores how states cooperate in relation to asylum seekers and refugees at all stages of displacement, including reception, protection and return.

The project encompasses analysis of both deterrence policies to prevent asylum seekers and refugees accessing the territory of Global North states and potential solutions for refugees achieved through inter-state cooperation.

The project focuses on the following current legal and policy questions:

• Legal aspects of third country asylum processing centres
• Legal aspects of third country return centres
• Accountability for violations of human rights and refugee law during cooperation
• The Global Compact on Refugees
• Refugee resettlement and complementary pathways.

Background

International refugee law does not regulate how states share responsibility for refugees. As a result, in many respects, international cooperation on asylum seems to take place in a normative vacuum. The lack of clear parameters guiding international cooperation in this area leaves the principle open to distortion by state practice and the states are unwilling to undertake binding commitments on responsibility sharing.

Nevertheless, international cooperation on asylum seekers and refugees is on the rise. Increasingly, states cooperate on the reception of asylum seekers and protection of refugees. Cooperation may be aimed at deterring irregular migration, providing protection in the region of origin, or opening up new protection opportunities.

In a political climate seeking to ‘push the boundaries’ of human rights and refugee law, this research project offers precise, doctrinal legal analysis of the key human rights questions surrounding international cooperation in this area.