Why do people become refugees?

One of the fundamental responsibilities of a government is to give security to its citizens in the territory it controls. This means that it must make sure that citizens living in that region sustain themselves in a humane way. Sometimes due to various reasons, e.g. war, famine, militia group rise-up, etc the safety-net offered by governments disappears and people would need to flee their country and seek asylum in another country.

Once a person leaves his or her country for reasons of persecution and enters into another country, the person has the right to ask the authorities of that country whether protection could be granted to him or her. It is up to the authorities of the country that the person enters whether such protection (in the form of humanitarian or refugee status) is granted to that person.

It makes perfect sense that anyone who is persecuted in his or her country can flee the persecution, in fact the UN wrote "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. - Article 14" in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Forcibly returning people to a territory where they face danger goes against humanity.

Article 1 of the 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as "A person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or return there, for fear of persecution."

What is the 1951 Refugee Convention?

The 1951 Refugee Convention is a body of international law, conventions and guidelines to protect refugees. The Convention outlines a refugee's rights including such things as freedom of religion and movement, right to work, education and accessibility to travel documents, but is also underscore a refugee's obligations to a host government. It maintains that refugees should not be returned to a country where he or she fears persecution. It also spells out people who are not covered by the Convention.

The Convention does not provide automatic or permanent protection. There will be situations where refugees will integrate permanently in their country of asylum, but alternatively a person may cease to be a refugee when the basis for his or her refugee status ceases to exist.

On acceding to the Convention a state does not become a haven for asylum seekers, neither does it provide a 'pull' factor for increasing numbers of asylum seekers. Some of the states who host the largest refugee populations are not parties to the Convention.

People who have committed crimes against peace, a war crime, crimes against humanity or any other serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge is not covered by the Convention.

Refugees cannot be soldiers. Former soldiers may qualify. People who continue to take in military activities cannot be considered for asylum.

Who decides who is a refugee?

The authorities of the country an asylum seekers seeks refuge in is responsible for deciding who is a refugee and not. A country has it's own juridical system and it's own procedures of determining who is entitled to protection and who is not.

If a country has acceded itself to the 1951 Refugee Convention it is supposed to grant protection according to the Convention's guidelines. Unfortunately the Convention does not spell out how a country should determine refugees from asylum seekers not covered by the convention. As a result people (including families) who are entitled to protection have been detained for a very long time.

Is detention legal?

Identifying who is really in need of protection could be a daunting task. The UNHCR has hundreds of personnel around the world monitoring volatile regions and briefing governments which groups of people are in need of asylum. The 1951 convention asks that governments adopt a flexible, rapid and liberal process in determining who is entitled to a refugee status.

The Convention states that detention should only be used as a last resort. The terms flexible, rapid, liberal and "last resort" are not defined in the Convention so governments can argue that 3 years i n detention awaiting asylum procedures is acceptable. The UNHCR's will is not international law. Holding government responsible (in this case for unessecary detention) for breaking the will of the international community or the 1951 Convention which their country has acceded to is virtually impossible.