CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Wookey, James Patrick |
|---|---|
| Title | Denial and Deterrence in Refugee Policy and Practice in Australia, Hungary and the United States |
| Summary | This thesis examines the practices and policies pursued by Australia, Hungary and the United States with respect to persons seeking international protection. Under the Refugee Convention, these countries are internationally bound to respect the prohibition on refoulement, to provide persons seeking international protection access to asylum procedures, and to provide broader Convention rights to such persons who are subject to their jurisdiction and physically within their territories; the refugee protection frameworks in these countries have evolved in such a way as to be incompatible with these key obligations. As such, this Thesis then turns to the nature of the rhetoric employed in Australia, Hungary and the United States when discussing, promoting and justifying their policies and practices which are inconsistent with the Convention obligations, and then analyses this rhetoric by reference to the conceptual framework provided by the juncture of securitisation, majority identitarian populism and crimmigration. Australia, Hungary and the United States incontrovertibly violate their Convention obligations. While this thesis may provide an explanation for why these violations occur, it does not provide an answer for what happens as a consequence of these violations. While Hungary may face some consequences through the supranational legal framework of the European Union, it is unlikely that Australia and the United States will be held accountable in any meaningful way for their violations of the Convention. This demonstrates the limited force the Convention has as an instrument of international law, as it only has the power that signatory states ultimately decide to accord it through their laws and practices. Broadly, this has concerning ramifications for the future interpretation of the aforementioned key Convention obligations. While non-refoulement exists to prevent the return of persons seeking international protection in any manner whatsoever to countries where they may face harm that amounts to persecution, practices whereby access to territory is prevented and entry into territory is criminalised mean that these states can very easily refoule persons they are bound to protect. Where states are able to force refugees back to countries where they risk persecution, whether through directly deporting them to their countries of origin or indirectly forcing them to return through the cumulative effect of policies of denial and deterrence, the foundational protection of the Convention is fundamentally weakened. |
| Supervisor | Nagy, Boldizsar |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/wookey_james.pdf |
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