This thesis focuses on the ‘right to seek asylum’. What does the concept involve? Where can this right be found and does it even exist? Does it apply extraterritorially and what legal rights and obligations of states follow from the concept? As an example of the current legal situation, the examination made is applied to the situation where refugees and asylum-seekers are on board government ships on the high seas due to rescue operations or interceptions, two situations that are not uncommon. The approach chosen for this thesis is the analytical legal method. The study is based on international law, but due to the fact that most maritime migrants head for Europe, an examination is also made whether the concept has a wider meaning under general European law.
The thesis clarifies that there is no explicit binding ‘right to seek asylum’ under international law. An implied right to seek asylum vis-à-vis the state from which the refugee fled may be derived, although not as an absolute right. By virtue of the principle of non-refoulement, there is an implied, absolute right to seek asylum vis-à-vis a potential state of refuge. A corresponding right to be granted asylum does not exist under international law.
The study concludes that the principle of non-refoulement, and thus the right to seek asylum vis-à-vis the potential state of refuge, has extraterritorial applicability. Moreover, it provides a subsequent right to admission to a state, although that state does not have to be the same as the one that first receives the asylum application. Thus, what at first might not appear to be a right of much relevance, because of the absence of a right to be granted asylum, seems to be the most important asylum right of all.
It is also concluded that the concept means essentially the same under general European law as under international law. Even though there is an express ‘right to asylum’ under EU primary law, which seems to imply a wider protection range, it is simply a reference to the right as implied in the principle of non-refoulement under the Refugee Convention.
Essä, kurs i Geopolitik och internationella relationer
HT 2020
Här behandlar jag frågan om nationer, i beteckningen folkgrupper, och nationalism kopplat till relationen mellan turkar och greker på Cypern. Ur en geopolitisk infallsvinkel tydliggörs den valda konflikten, mot bakgrund av hur stater, nationer, nationell identitet och nationalism påverkar geopolitiska skeenden.
Essä, kurs i Internationella relationer
HT 2020
Thesis in International Law, 30 HE Credits
Jan - jun 2015
What does the ‘right to seek asylum’ involve? Where can it be found and does it even exist? Does it apply extraterritorially and what legal rights and obligations of states follow from the concept?
The examination made is applied to the situation where refugees and asylum-seekers are on board government ships on the high seas due to rescue operations or interceptions, two situations that are not uncommon.
The study is based on international law, but due to the fact that most maritime migrants head for Europe, an examination is also made whether the concept has a wider meaning under general European law.
