cover image: SSN Basic Facts Arar on Sovereignty and the Global Refugee Crisis

20.500.12592/vmwhzp

SSN Basic Facts Arar on Sovereignty and the Global Refugee Crisis

10 Jan 2017

From Britain’s support for Brexit to Australia’s commitment to Operation Sovereign Borders, states have invoked rights of self-governance and autonomy to justify rejection of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and spurn the involvement of international institutions like the United Nations or European Union. [...] According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, developing countries in the Global South house 86% of the world’s refugees. [...] According to Article 1 (A)(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is a 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 to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who. [...] Major refugee receiving states invite the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to help defray the costs of housing, feeding, and social services for refugees – which in turn can undermine the host states’ domestic authority. [...] Best practices need to look beyond the interests of Western states to more fully consider the needs of refugees and the sovereign and resource concerns of the less economically developed nations and communities that host the vast majority of displaced people.

Authors

Ghedi-Ehrlich, Elizabeth

Pages
2
Published in
United States of America