Refugees: A Legal Discussion - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Refugees: A Legal Discussion

Nicole Lindbergh

11.18.17Slide2

No one would leave home unless home

chased you, fire under feet,

hot blood in your belly.

Home,

by

Warsan

ShireSlide3

The Crisis You Know:

51% of refugees are

children.

55% of refugees come from:Syria (5.5 million)

Afghanistan (2.5 million)

South Sudan (1.4 million)

65.6 million displaced people in the world (UNHCR 2017)

22.5 million refugees

40.3 million internally displaced people

2.8 million asylum seekersSlide4

Learning Objectives:Slide5

No one would choose to crawl under fences,

be beaten until your shadow leaves you,

raped, then drowned, forced to the bottom of

the boat because you are darker, be sold,starved, shot at the border like a sick animal,

be pitied, lost your name, lose your family,

make a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten, stripped and searched, find prison everywhere

Home,

by

Warsan ShireSlide6

What is a refugee?Slide7

What is a refugee?

Any person who: “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or, who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events is unable, or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” –UN Convention on Refugees, 1951, revised 1967Slide8

What does that mean?

You must be

persecuted.

You must not have protection

on the basis of your nationality or citizenship.

You must

be unable to return to your home country

based on that fear of persecution.Slide9

No one leaves home

unless home is the mouth of a shark

you only run for the border

when you see the whole city running as well.

Home,

by

Warsan

ShireSlide10

Implicit Definitions

Irregular exit and alienage: you must

already have left your country

and be outside of a government’s protection

If you can immigrate

legally and willingly,

you cannot be a refugee.

Implied plurality: You must belong to a group that is being persecuted.Nexus of persecution: You must be persecuted for the following things:

RaceReligionNationalityPolitical OrientationSocial groupSlide11

What are the rights of refugees?Slide12

What is a refugee?

Any person who: “owing to a well-founded fear of

being persecuted

for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is

outside the country of his nationality

and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or, who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events is unable, or, owing to such fear, is

unwilling to return to it

.”

–UN Convention on Refugees, 1951, revised 1967Slide13

Rights:Slide14

BIG DISTINCTION

Refugees, ultimately, are deprived of

citizenship,

and are therefore entitled to citizenship.

They are

not

entitled to

specific citizenship or hosting in specific countriesSlide15

Who is not a refugee?

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and

any refugee-like individual who has not irregularly exited their country of origin

40 million people qualify as IDPs.

Women oppressed because of their gender.

Migrants forced out by climate change.

Not persecution, technically.

Economic migrantsPeople searching for a better life

People fleeing “generalized violence”Refers to harm that affects you that is not related to the critical nexus of traits that could label it as persecution.E.g. gang violence, war, etc.Slide16

Status Determination

Refugee Status Determination

Determined by agencies/states

Individual basis

Interview process

Status endures until conditions change

Prima facie

Given by states

Applied for a set time periodApplies to whole groupsSlide17

You have to understand,

no one puts their children in a boat

unless the water is safer than the land

Home,

by

Warsan

ShireSlide18

Three Durable Solutions of Refugees:Slide19

How

do they leave?Slide20

Irregular Exit

By Sea

Extremely treacherous

Interdiction possible…

Operation Vigilant Sentry

Australia’s aggressive interdiction policy

By Land

Illegally crossing borders

Weeks or months of walking

SmugglersFor profit illegal smugglersFriendly smugglers Churches, ironicallySlide21
Slide22
Slide23

Who would choose to spend days

and nights in the stomach of a truck

unless the miles travelled

meant something more than journey.

Home,

by

Warsan

ShireSlide24

What are the legal mechanisms protecting refugees?Slide25

Adjudicative procedures

Host Countries

Harbor impermanently

refugees until they are repatriated, resettled, or are allowed to integrate.

Right to asylum

Convention Signatories

Obligated to perform adjudicative procedures themselves

or to disjunctively adjudicate them through intermediates

Refugee Status Determination (RSD)

Prima facie statusSlide26

Who are the host countries?Slide27

What happens to refugees?Slide28

No one chooses refugee camps

or strip searches where your

body is left aching,

or prison, because prison is safer

than a city of fire

and one prison guard in the night

is better than a truckload

of men, who look like your fatherno one could take it

no one could stomach itno one skin is tough enough.Home, by Warsan ShireSlide29

Refugee Camps

The average refugee spends 17-21 years in a refugee camp (UNHCR).

Intergenerational element

Detainee facilities?

Enormous cost to host countries

UNHCR

Huge controversySlide30
Slide31
Slide32

Three Durable Solutions of Refugees:Slide33

RepatriationSlide34

Resettlement

189,300 refugees resettled

96,000 resettled to the United States

FAMILY REUNIFICATION!

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Subsidiary protection

Humane right to staySlide35

And if you survive and you are greeted on the other side,

with go home blacks, refugees,

dirty immigrants, asylum seekers

sucking our country dry of milk…look what they’ve done to their own countrieswhat will they do to ours?

Home,

by

Warsan

ShireSlide36

What are our obligations towards them?Slide37

EVERY SIGNATORY’S OBLIGATIONSSlide38

Should we change the definition of refugee?

“The term "refugee" shall also apply to every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality.”Slide39

I want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark

home is the barrel of the gun

and no one would leave home

unless home chased you to the shore

Home,

by

Warsan

Shire