Can the UN’s Refugee Convention survive?
Adriana Tidona, migration researcher at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera: “The new Migration and Asylum Pact will make it easier for EU countries to reject asylum applications without review, and send people to so-called ‘safe third countries’ to which they have no connection and where they have never even set foot.
Removing safe routesWhile the convention states that they should not be punished for entering countries irregularly to claim asylum, European governments from Greece to the UK have been detaining refugees under anti-smuggling laws in recent years.
A small inflatable boat carrying migrants from Afghanistan is towed by rescuers from the Refugee Rescue NGO, near Skala Sikamineas, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, on September 16, 2019 [File: Giorgos Moutafis/Reuters]For campaigners, new European policies fly in the face of the convention’s principles, such as the right to territorial asylum and the principle of non-refoulement.
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