Introduction
A refuge is someone outside their country of origin with ‘a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’, who is either unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country. As stated in Refugee conventions, refugee hood typically involves both causal and moral responsibility on the part of the state of origin.
In recent years, international migration has made its way to the forefront of the security agendas of several states, particularly in Europe and North America. The perception of immigration as a threat to security has developed alongside the rapid increase in the number of immigrants worldwide: while there were approximately 191 million persons living outside their countries of origin in 2005, by 2010 this number had increased to an estimated 214 million (IOM 2010). In
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The American public has remained detached from this tragedy, assured that it is some other nation’s problem but ignorant of the tangled origins of the calamity. The case of the Afghans, one of the world’s largest refugee communities and the second-largest group – behind Syrians – to arrive in Europe recently, should serve as a reminder that the origins of today’s predicament are neither recent nor confined to the refugees’ home countries.
Case law In the case of Ilascu and others v Moldova and Russia, the European Court confirmed that if the state lost control over part of its territory during an armed conflict, the state ‘must endeavour, with all the legal and diplomatic means available to it visa visa foreign states and international organisations, to continue to guarantee the enjoyment of the rights and freedom guaranteed by the convention on behalf of the individuals living in this