NEW ISSUES IN REFUGEE RESEARCH Working Paper No. 10 Deflecting international protection by treaty: bilateral and multilateral accords on extradition, readmission and the inadmissibility of asylum requests Karin Landgren UNICEF New York USA e-mail: <
[email protected]> June 1999 These working papers are published by the Centre for Documentation and Research. They provide a means for UNHCR staff, consultants, interns and associates to publish the preliminary results of their research on refugee-related issues. The papers do not represent the official views of UNHCR. They are also available online at <http://www.unhcr.org> ISSN 1020-7473 I. Introduction For as long as it has existed, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has voiced concerns about threats to refugee protection. In the 1990s, many of these concerns reflect declining Western hospitality towards refugees. Without their Cold War propaganda value as tangible evidence of the evils of communism, refugees' selling points have been reduced, and replaced by appeals to humanitarianism and to states' international obligations. Industrialized countries had already begun to close their doors in the early 1980s, in response to dramatically higher numbers of asylum applicants in Western Europe. States with the capacity to patrol their borders and to maintain sophisticated refugee status determination systems have decimated the number of asylum seekers coming in. For those who nonetheless manage to enter, the possibilities for recognition of refugee status are reduced.1 Measures states have taken include the imposition of visa requirements, carrier sanctions against transportation companies bringing illegal aliens to their territory, interdiction at sea, and re-interpretations of refugee law to arrive at a finding of non-responsibility.