Right of asylum

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"Political asylum" redirects here. For the band, see Political Asylum (band).
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The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; from

Greeks, and the Hebrews, from whom it was adopted into Western tradition. René Descartes fled to the Netherlands, Voltaire to England, and Thomas Hobbes to France
, because each state offered protection to persecuted foreigners.

The Egyptians, Greeks and Hebrews recognized a religious "right of asylum", protecting people (including those accused of crime) from severe punishments. This principle was later adopted by the established Christian church, and various rules were developed that detailed how to qualify for protection and what degree of protection one would receive.[3]

The

thieves and adulterers
alike.

That "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution" is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and supported by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.[4] Under these agreements, a refugee is a person who is outside that person's own country's territory owing to fear of persecution on protected grounds, including race, caste, nationality, religion, political opinions and participation in any particular social group or social activities.

Medieval England

Further information: Asylum (antiquity)
Dunvallo Molmutius (4th/5th century BC) enacted sanctuary laws among the Molmutine Laws as recorded by Gildas (c. 500–570).[5] The term grith was used by the laws of king Ethelred
.

By the

Norman era that followed 1066, two kinds of sanctuary had evolved: all churches had the lower-level powers and could grant sanctuary within the church proper, but the broader powers of churches licensed by royal charter
extended sanctuary to a zone around the church. At least twenty-two churches had charters for this broader sanctuary, including

Sometimes the criminal had to get to the chapel itself to be protected, or ring a certain bell, hold a certain ring or door-knocker, or sit on a certain chair ("frith-stool"). Some of these items survive at various churches. Elsewhere, sanctuary held in an area around the church or abbey, sometimes extending in radius to as much as a mile and a half. Stone "sanctuary crosses" marked the boundaries of the area; some crosses still exist as well. Thus it could become a race between the felon and the medieval law officers to the nearest sanctuary boundary. Serving of justice upon the fleet of foot could prove a difficult proposition.

Church sanctuaries were regulated by common law. An asylum seeker had to confess his sins, surrender his weapons, and permit supervision by a church or abbey organization with jurisdiction. Seekers then had forty days to decide whether to surrender to secular authorities and stand trial for their alleged crimes, or to confess their guilt,

excommunication
from the Church.

If the suspects chose to confess their guilt and abjure, they did so in a public ceremony, usually at the church gates. They would surrender their possessions to the church, and any

vigilante
justice under the pretense of a fugitive who wandered too far off the main highway while trying to "escape".

Knowing the grim options, some fugitives rejected both choices and opted for an escape from the asylum before the forty days were up. Others simply made no choice and did nothing. Since it was illegal for the victim's friends to break into an asylum, the church would deprive the fugitive of food and water until a decision was made.

In the 14th century, fugitives claiming sanctuary were protected by an Act of 1315. It was stipulated that fugitives should be allowed access outside of the church to urinate and defecate, and also not be allowed to die due to hunger while being protected in church. Sanctuary can only be confirmed under confession to a witness. However, the right of sanctuary is often ignored such as in the case of Isabella de Bury, or the peasants during the Peasants Revolt who took shelter. In the case of Richard Folville, he was beheaded once forcibly removed from church.[6]

During the

Edward IV of England
.

In 1470, when the Lancastrians briefly restored

Edward V during that time. When King Edward IV died in 1483, Elizabeth (who was highly unpopular with even the Yorkists and probably did need protection) took her five daughters and youngest son (Richard, Duke of York) and again moved into sanctuary at Westminster. To be sure she had all the comforts of home, she brought so much furniture and so many chests that the workmen had to knock holes in some of the walls to get everything in fast enough to suit her.[7]

James I
in 1623.

Modern political asylum

The
Dutch government grants asylum to a couple of hundred elderly people from Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states. After the end of World War II, these people stayed in camps in Austria and West Germany. (Newsreel
(in Dutch))

Article 14 of the

political opinions and membership or participation in any particular social group
or social activities. Since the 1990s, victims of sexual persecution (which may include domestic violence, or systematic oppression of a gender or sexual minority) have come to be accepted in some countries as a legitimate category for asylum claims, when claimants can prove that the state is unable or unwilling to provide protection.

Rendering true victims of persecution to their persecutor is a violation of a principle called

Law of Nations. These are the accepted terms and criteria as principles and a fundamental part in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees non-refoulement order.[8]

People fleeing from

displaced persons
.

Critical theory can be used to interpret the right of asylum.[9]

Right of asylum by country of refuge

Main article: Refugee law

European Union

Main article:
Asylum in the European Union
Medieval boundary marker at St. Georgenberg, Tyrol

Asylum in

Dublin Convention in 1990. It continued with the implementation of Eurodac and the Dublin Regulation in 2003, and the October 2009 adoption of two proposals by the European Commission.[10] However, until today, the member states principally stay in charge for granting and organizing asylum. War refugees are protected under the subsidiary protection clause and the Temporary Protection Directive. The European Union (EU+) received over 1.1 million asylum applications with a rate of granting refugee status or subsidiary protection at 43 %.[11]

France
Main article: Asylum in France
Notre-Dame de Paris
(France)

France was the first country to establish a constitutional right to asylum, in Article 120 of the Constitution of 1793, for "foreigners banished from their fatherland for the cause of liberty".[12] This constitution, however, never entered into force. The Preamble of the Constitution of 1946 similarly guaranteed the right of asylum to "anyone persecuted because of his activities in the cause of freedom".[13] The modern French right of asylum is secured by the Preamble of the Constitution of 1958, via a reference to the Preamble of the 1946 Constitution.[14]

In addition to the constitutional right to asylum, the modern French right to asylum (droit d'asile) is enshrined on a legal and regulatory basis in the Code of Entry and Residence of Foreigners and of the Right to Asylum.[15]

France also adheres to international agreements which provide for application modalities for the right of asylum, such as the 1951

immigration policy. Finally, the right of asylum is defined by article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
.

Some of the criteria for which an asylum application can be rejected include: i) Passage via “safe" third country, ii) Safe Country of Origin (An asylum seeker can be a prior refused asylum if they are a national of a country considered to be "safe" by the French asylum authority OFPRA),[16] iii) Safety Threat (serious threat to the public order), or iv) Fraudulent Application (abuse of the asylum procedure for other reasons).

The December 10, 2003, law limited political asylum through two main restrictions:

  • The notion of "internal asylum": the request may be rejected if the foreigner may benefit from political asylum on a portion of the territory of their home country.
  • The
    Macedonia.[18]

While restricted, the right of political asylum has been conserved in France amid various anti-immigration laws. Some people claim that, apart from the purely judicial path, the bureaucratic process is used to slow down and ultimately reject what might be considered as valid requests. According to Le Figaro, France granted 7,000 people the status of political refugee in 2006, out of a total of 35,000 requests; in 2005, the OFPRA in charge of examining the legitimacy of such requests granted less than 10,000 from a total of 50,000 requests.[19] Numerous exiles from South American dictatorships, particularly from Augusto Pinochet's Chile and the Dirty War in Argentina, were received in the 1970s-80s. During the war in Afghanistan (2001–2021), tens of thousands of Afghan refugees were granted asylum in France.[20]

Latvia

In April 2023, Latvia approved the asylum application of a Russian citizen. He had previously been harassed by authorities for his support of Russian opposition Alexei Navalny, and he faced court-martial for alleged war crimes after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 for objecting to military service.[21]

United Kingdom

Further information:
Greenwich Royal Observatory[citation needed] and the 1911 Siege of Sidney Street in the context of the propaganda of the deed (anarchist) actions, political asylum was restricted.[23]

United States

Further information: Asylum in the United States and Removal proceedings

The United States recognizes the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. In accordance with international law, the United States considers asylum candidates on the basis of persecution or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion.[24]

Every year, the President of the United States specifies a number of legally defined refugees who are granted refugee status outside the United States to be admitted to the country under 8 U.S.C. § 1157.[25] Of these, many are recommended for firm resettlement by the offices of the UNHCR around the world. The annual number of refugees admitted varies from year to year and is determined by a joint collaboration between the incumbent presidential administration and Congress. By contrast, the United States does not enforce any such quota for asylum seekers. Rather, the annual number of asylum grants is dependent upon a combination of how many individuals submit applications and how many individuals are able to successfully prove their asylum claim.[26]

According to US law, individuals are eligible for asylum status based on the following conditions:[27]

  • Meet the definition of refugee
  • Are already inside the United States
  • Are seeking admission at a port of entry

There are two main types of asylum an applicant can request under US law: affirmative asylum and defensive asylum. To apply for affirmative asylum, applicants must be physically present in the United States, regardless of their current immigration status. In most cases, affirmative asylum applications must be filed within one year of arriving in the United States. Defensive asylum is typically filed by individuals seeking to request a defense against removal or deportation from the United States. The primary distinction between these two processes is whether removal proceedings have been initiated for an applicant. If an individual has been placed in removal proceedings they must seek defensive asylum. If an individual has not been placed in removal proceedings, they are able to seek affirmative asylum.[28]

The majority of asylum claims fail or are rejected.[citation needed] Still, since World War II, more refugees have found homes in the United States than any other nation.[citation needed] "Since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980... the United States has admitted more than 3.1 million refugees."[29] During much of the 1990s, the United States accepted over 100,000 refugees per year, though this figure has recently decreased to around 50,000 per year in the first decade of the 21st century, due to greater security concerns. As for asylum seekers, the latest statistics show that 86,400 persons sought sanctuary in the United States in 2001.[30] Before the September 11 attacks in 2001, individual asylum applicants were evaluated in private proceedings by officers of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In the aftermath of the attacks, the United States established three distinct organizations that each handle a different aspect of US immigration law, including the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs & Border Protection (CFB). Asylum applications are handled by the USCIS.[31]

Despite this, concerns have been raised with the US asylum and refugee determination processes.[according to whom?] A recent empirical analysis by three legal scholars described the US asylum process as a game of refugee roulette; that is to say that the outcome of asylum determinations depends in large part on the personality of the particular adjudicator to whom an application is randomly assigned, rather than on the merits of the case. The very low numbers of Iraqi refugees accepted between 2003 and 2007 exemplifies concerns about the United States' refugee processes. The Foreign Policy Association reported that:

Perhaps the most perplexing component of the Iraq refugee crisis... has been the inability for the US to absorb more Iraqis following the 2003 invasion of the country. To date,[when?] the US has granted fewer than 800 Iraqis refugee status, just 133 in 2007. By contrast, the US granted asylum to more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War.

Refugee and asylum policy advocates have called for a system based upon the "human interest approach" which seeks to allow asylum applicants be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as opposed to being assessed against other applicants. Under the US asylum structure, applicants' cases are often analyzed based on the strength of their educational/professional qualifications or on the level of danger they face in their country of origin. Amongst the academic community, such an approach is considered to be the narrative of the "gifted or traumatized" refugee. By contrast, the human-interest approach experts advocate for seeks to reframe the application process around the individual and focus on each applicant's unique story and experience.[32]

According to US Department of Justice in 2023 there were 478,885 asylum applications filed, 31,630 asylum applications granted, and 937,611 asylum applications pending.[33] The US Department of Justice shows for 2023 a rate of granting asylum at 14.40%, denial rate at 15.67%, administrative closure at 8.98% and other at 60.95% ("decision of abandonment, not adjudicated, other or withdrawn").[34]

People's Republic of China

Paragraph 2 of Article 32 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China stipulates that China may grant asylum to foreigners who request it for political reasons.

In 1979, Hoàng Văn Hoan, the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, was the last foreigner to be granted political asylum by China. From 1980 to the present, no foreigner has been granted political asylum by China. All foreigners who have been granted political asylum in China are foreign pro-communist political leaders.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "asylum". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
  2. ^ Harper, Douglas. "asylum". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  3. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Sanctuary".
  4. ^ "Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees".
  5. ^ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae 2, 17
  6. ISBN 9781845950996
    . Retrieved 2 April 2022 – via Archive.
  7. ^ Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, pp. 35–36
  8. ^ Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 33 (1)
  9. ^ Ingram, David. "What an Ethics of Discourse and Recognition Can Contribute to a Critical Theory of Refugee Claim Adjudication: Reclaiming Epistemic Justice for Gender-Based Asylum Seekers." Migration, Recognition and Critical Theory (2021): 19-46.
  10. ^ A single asylum procedure and equitable to establish a uniform status valid throughout the European Union: the final building blocks of international protection are asked, Brussels, October 21, 2009 (press release Europa.eu)
  11. ^ EU received over 1.1 million asylum applications in 2023, European Union Agency for Asylum, February 2024.
  12. S2CID 145682715
    .
  13. ^ French Constitution of 1946  – via Wikisource.
  14. ^ Constitution of the Fifth French Republic (original text)  – via Wikisource.
  15. ^ "Code de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile" (in French). Legifrance. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  16. ^ "Authority delegated to OFPRA by art. L. 722-1 of Code de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile, J.O., 4 December 2009". Legifrance.gouv.fr.
  17. ^ "ofpra.gouv.fr".
  18. ^ Asile politique: la France ajoute cinq Etats à sa liste de pays «sûrs», Le Figaro, April 27, 2006 (in French)
  19. ^ "La porte étroite de l'asile politique", Le Figaro, February 13, 2007, p.20 (in French)
  20. ^ "How the US and the UK accept far fewer Afghan refugees than other countries". New Statesman. August 19, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  21. ^ "No nosūtīšanas uz Ukrainu bēgošs Krievijas pilsonis tiesas ceļā izcīna patvērumu Latvijā" (in Latvian). Diena. 2023-04-23. Archived from the original on 2023-04-17.
  22. ISBN 9780714651002
    .
  23. ISBN 9781859833636
    .
  24. ^ "Refugees and Asylum | USCIS". www.uscis.gov. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  25. ^ "Memorandum for the Secretary of State on Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2022". The White House. 8 October 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  26. ^ "U.S. Annual Refugee Resettlement Ceilings and Number of Refugees Admitted, 1980-Present". migrationpolicy.org. 2013-08-13. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  27. ^ "Refugees and Asylum | USCIS". www.uscis.gov. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  28. ^ "Obtaining Asylum in the United States | USCIS". www.uscis.gov. 2021-09-16. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  29. ^ "U.S. Refugee Admissions Program". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  30. ^ "Asylum Seekers (most recent) by country". Nationmaster.com. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
  31. ^ "Refugee Admissions". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  32. S2CID 146369207
    .
  33. ^ Executive Office For Immigration Review, Adjuction Statistics, Total Asylum Applications, U.S. Department of Justice
  34. ^ Aylum Decision Rates, Adjucation Statistics, Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Department of Justice

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