Some would argue that off-shore processing of refugees is a way to avoid unsafe and criminal smuggling and trafficking of persons. Discuss.
Introduction
According to the latest statistics published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in XXI century more people are seeking asylum and becoming refugees . These refugees fleeing from the conflict zones and persecution of the dictatorship regimes. But at the same time, bigger number of states are trying to stop those in need of international protection to reach their territory. As a result, extraterritorial asylum processing policies gained significant weight in more industrialized countries’ asylum debate. These kind of policies can be described as initiatives aimed
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The Refugee Convention, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and are meaningful treaties to look at.
It is clear that international human rights obligations apply to the state when asylum seeker is in its territory and their transfer to a third country. As a matter of international law, human rights obligations of the state may extend to its actions outside its territory , if state has ‘effective control’ over the treatment of asylum seekers, who was transferred by the country to another one. The country is obliged to continue to treat them consistently with the human rights obligations it has agreed to be bound by . Even when the state does not have effective control over a situation in another country, it cannot avoid its international human rights obligations by transferring asylum seekers to the third country. This means that the state may remain responsible for the consequences of its transfer of asylum seeker . For example, a State Party will be responsible for extraterritorial violations of the ICCPR if its actions expose a person to a ‘real risk’ that his or her rights will be violated, and this risk could reasonably have been anticipated by the State . Some of the possible violations will be examined