written by Eszti Galantai
Who is a refugee and why is this day important?
International refugee law defines refugees in strict terms. Article 1 of the Refugee Convention denotes that a refugee is someone who, due to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of the country of their nationality, and that country is unable to protect them. It is immediately striking that this initial definition does not include grounds that are widely recognized today, such as fleeing from war and armed conflict or having to leave one’s home due to one’s sexual orientation. It is also important to note that the refugee status is declaratory: a person is a refugee once they fulfil the criteria prescribed by international refugee law, while the attainment of the actual refugee status from a government may take years at times.
Amnesty International defines refugees as people who have fled their countries in the face of serious human rights violations and persecution, where the risk to their lives was so great that they had no other choice but to seek safety elsewhere. In turn, asylum-seekers are those who are in search of the international protection awarded to those facing fundamental human rights violations but have not yet been recognized as deserving of refugee status.
Since the 1951 Refugee Convention, a lot of improvement has been made in terms of broadening the recognition of refugees, to include a more expansive list of ‘reasons’ why one might resort to leaving the place they call home. We can think of people who had to flee their countries due to civil war, and acknowledging that one’s sexual orientation in certain places can amount to discrimination, imprisonment and violence, warranting international protection.
At the same time, asylum-seekers and refugees today face unprecedented efforts from the EU and its Member States to prevent them from ever reaching Europe. Simultaneously, problems arise throughout the asylum-determination process in many places in Europe, where asylum-seekers’ fundamental rights are threatened. World Refugee Day provides an opportunity to examine how, in practice, instead of focusing on the protection of a vulnerable group, some countries have in recent years doubled down on their efforts to protect their borders.
The externalization of border control in Europe and what this means for asylum-seekers
Since 2015, the European Union itself and some of its member states have been engaging in a range of actions implemented outside of their territories that asylum-seekers are trying to enter, through cooperation with other countries. These can include push-backs to the origin country, or completely preventing departures by enlisting other countries where asylum-seekers attempt to depart from, as well as having another country process the asylum claims and providing protection. Externalization measures also include international assistance and improving conditions in certain countries to lessen the need for people to leave, as well as regulating safe pathways, such as family reunification and resettlement. Naturally, these examples of externalization are much less problematic in terms of human rights and are unfortunately not the focus of recent developments.
The first, pioneering externalization agreement was signed in 2016 between the EU and Turkey, which aimed at returning asylum-seekers to Turkey, assuming that the country is safe for them, despite the absence of necessary safeguards. The deal has left thousands of asylum-seekers stuck in inhumane living conditions, while many others experienced unlawful returns to an unsafe country.
Due to its geographic position in the Mediterranean Sea, just across from both the ports of Tripoli and Tunis, Italy is a natural point of arrival for many asylum-seekers aiming to settle in Europe. Following the increased arrivals in 2015 owing to several conflicts across the globe, such as in Syria, and Afghanistan, two years later Italy made a bilateral agreement with Libya, committing to jointly combat irregular migration and human trafficking. What this agreement meant in practice was the financing and training of the Libyan coastguard, carrying out illegal pushbacks of asylum-seekers attempting to leave Europe. Those who got caught were brought back to Libya, a country which has been unsafe and unstable, grappling with armed conflict, unable to guarantee basic rights to anyone. Thousands have experienced arbitrary detention, torture and abuse, stuck in Libyan detention centers.
Regardless of the outrage and desperate outcries from human rights experts, organizations and scholars, the Italy-Libya agreement was renewed with no amendments in 2020. Recently, the EU has made other agreements with Tunisia and Egypt, aiming to curb migration. As Amnesty International points out, the lack of human rights safeguards and the deeply concerning human rights practices of both these countries cast serious doubts over these agreements. Similarly, even after experiencing serious backlash for its conduct with Libya, Italy has announced its cooperation with Albania in the construction of two detention centers for asylum-seekers in the territories of the latter, which are said to be operational in August 2024. The agreement means automatic detention for those rescued at sea and found to be eligible for detention in Albania, along with extra days of travelling at sea. It is important to note that even though Giorgia Meloni has stated that pregnant women and minors are excluded from being taken to Albania, the agreement itself contains no such safeguards. Besides lacking crucial safeguards for vulnerable people, these events follow an already traumatic and scarring experience of being in distress at sea, and for most, already having been subject to human rights violations throughout their journey.
Who is a refugee in 2024 in Europe?
The aforementioned, ongoing practices of externalization of border control and the EU and Italy’s disregard for international human rights and refugee law are part of a deeply concerning trend of shifting responsibilities to other countries. As Amnesty International points out, the crimes committed against asylum-seekers in Libya may amount to crimes against humanity, in which the EU and Italy are directly complicit. Not only do these agreements not save lives, but they also do not act as a deterrent for people aiming to cross the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, instead of dedicating resources towards improving the conditions in European centers and processes, states are instead mounting their efforts in ‘protecting’ their borders.
Refugees in 2024 are people who have had to face the worst that we can imagine, and make one of the hardest choices anyone can make: to leave everything behind, and set out on a journey that, for most, has no guarantees of survival. Having to flee one’s home does not discriminate: the elderly, pregnant women, as well as children go through unlawful detention, hunger and abuse, ending in a trip where their lives are in direct danger. Refugees in 2024 are people for whom the risks of human rights abuses have been multiplied by the cruel and inhumane policies of Europe, which is supposedly a safe haven for fundamental rights.
Refugees, at any time, anywhere in the world, are people who need protection. People, whose government failed them, and who the EU and Western countries are failing in turn. Refugees are neighbors, classmates, colleagues, friends, teachers, doctors, parents, but most importantly, they are human beings, deserving of retaining the same rights some of us are simply given. On World Refugee Day 2024, in the face of the increasing anti-migration policies in Europe, perhaps we can all acknowledge that the difference between the humanity of a refugee and a non-refugee simply lies in the place where we were born.
Be in solidarity #WithRefugees
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