scholarly journals Portuguese refugee law in the European context: the case of sexuality-based claims

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
European Context ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Migration History ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Portugal’s migration history has been extensively explored in academic literature, including in legal scholarship. Yet, very little attention has so far been directed towards Portuguese refugee law. This may be due to the relatively low number of asylum seekers that Portugal receives, but that does not justify neglecting the study of the Portuguese socio-legal framework applicable to asylum seekers and refugees. This article addresses this gap by analyzing the framework in a European context, enhancing the analysis with a case study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers. The analysis explores the evolution of the current legal framework, the procedures and remedies available to asylum seekers, the substantive standards applied in decision-making, and the broader socio-legal resources offered to asylum seekers. Several shortcomings and possible avenues of improvement are also identified.

scholarly journals Refugees and asylum seekers in Portugal: an assessment and the case of LGBTI individuals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Migration History ◽  
Short Piece ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Portugal’s migration history has been extensively explored in academic literature, including in legal scholarship. Yet, very little attention has so far been directed towards Portuguese refugee law. This may be due to the relatively low number of asylum seekers that Portugal receives, but that does not justify neglecting the study of the Portuguese socio-legal framework applicable to asylum seekers and refugees. This short piece summarises the findings of an article that addresses this gap by analyzing the framework in a European context, enhancing the analysis with a case study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers. The analysis explores the evolution of the current legal framework, the procedures and remedies available to asylum seekers, the substantive standards applied in decision-making, and the broader socio-legal resources offered to asylum seekers. Several shortcomings and possible avenues of improvement are also identified.

International Institutions and Individualized Decision-Making: An Example of UNHCR's Refugee Status Determination

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1779-1804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Smrkolj
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Sudanese Refugees ◽  
Individualized Decision ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

In autumn 2005 a group of Sudanese asylum seekers and refugees discontented with the unbearable conditions in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges (UNHCR) office in Cairo started a sit-in protest near the office. The protesters were, besides venting their anger at the suspension of Refugee Status Determination procedures for Sudanese refugees due to the ceasefire between the Sudanese government and Sudan's People Liberation Army, also making their frustrations heard regarding UNHCR's lengthy procedures, its failure to provide them with proper assistance, the high numbers of rejected applications, improper interviews and their general treatment by UNHCR's personnel as well as their difficult social and health conditions which had been aggravated by the lack of proper assistance. They were demanding that this situation be remedied and calling for transparent and fair procedures. Shortly thereafter they were joined by many more protesters so that in the following three months a group of between 1,800 and 2,500 people stayed around UNHCR's premises. However, meetings and negotiations with UNCHR eventually failed. The crisis ended in a tragedy. On December 30, 2005 the Egyptian security forces proceeded with the forcible removal of the protesters from the venue in an action in which 28 refugees were killed, more than half of which were children and women, with several protesters missing after the events. The Cairo incident illustrates what the cited report on the events has rightly called “a tragedy of failures and false expectations” regarding international humanitarian and human rights institutions.

scholarly journals Migrants in the Attic: The Case of Migrants with Disabilities and Resettlement Services in Serbia

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Joel John Badali
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The State ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Settlement Services ◽  
Balkan Region

The global migrant crisis triggered an unprecedented number of asylum seekers in the Balkan region. In this case study, the state of migrants with disabilities—a community notoriously overlooked during global conflict—is explored through field interviews of settlement service providers in Serbia. A human rights framework is espoused in first examining contemporary refugee law discourse and the corresponding gaps in current resettlement practice of migrants with disabilities. The study’s findings illuminate the need for a drastic shift in settlement services for those migrants most vulnerable to persecution in de facto destination countries. The discussion takes aim at “humanitarian silo” funding models and argues for international cooperation and transparency in accommodating migrants with disabilities internationally.

scholarly journals Asylum Seekers’ and Refugees’ Decision-Making in Transit in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 175 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Missbach
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Migration Strategies ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
In Transit ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Abstract Asylum seekers and refugees currently living in Indonesia tend to see Indonesia as a transit rather than a destination country, despite the fact that their stays are increasing in length. Based on contact with Muhamad (not his real name), a young refugee from Iran currently residing in Indonesia whose adjustment and development I observed over four years, I illustrate the changing priorities in his decision-making, the constant flux of circumstances and context, and the extreme complexity of primary and secondary factors that come into play in planning for the future. Combining a macro perspective with a case study, in which I present excerpts from several life-story interviews, helps to exemplify these generic migratory challenges and distil a range of relevant parameters that influence the decision-making of asylum seekers and refugees in transit. A (self-)critical reflection on ethical and methodological challenges underpins my analysis and argument, not least because politicians and policymakers are increasingly interested in influencing migratory decision-making processes to gain political advantage. Of particular interest in my analysis is the role of Australia’s deterrence policies in asylum seekers’ decision-making. Despite the ethical challenges associated with studying migratory decision-making—as public knowledge of migration strategies can also suppress aspirations of mobility—I argue for more in-depth and longitudinal research. At the very least, this is because more intensive, yet considerate studies of decision-making will help us to take seriously the migratory aspirations of people with limited choices.

scholarly journals The Transfer of Asylum Seekers in Australia to Third Countries: A Case Study of Sovereignty versus International Law

2013 ◽  
pp. 187-196
Author(s):  
Hugh S. Tuckfield
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
The Cost ◽  
International Conventions

Asylum is an issue equally central to refugee law and human rights. Generally, they are protected under the 1951 Refugee Convention, but asylum cases are largely state regulated affair, subject to state legislations, policies and guidelines, which certainly do not preclude the applicability of international obligations directing the conduct of state towards the asylum seekers, which emanate from the recognized international human rights principles such as right to seek asylum and right against refoulement and right not to be arbitrarily detained. Contracting parties to international conventions such as the 1951 Refugee Convention, ICCPR, ISESCR, CAT, CRC, CEDAW and CERD among others acquire the responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill the obligations adducible in treatment of asylum seekers. In this regard, Australia was one of the earliest state parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention and is also a party to the relevant human rights treaties. However, it is determined to adhere to its conventional understanding of sovereignty and nationalism, at the cost of comprising the minimum protection of the rights of those who seek asylum in it.

scholarly journals Queer asylum seekers in Belgium:

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Anna Ropianyk ◽  
Serena D’Agostino
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
To Come ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

While Belgium is viewed as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly countries in Europe, its asylum system operates on problematic assumptions, compelling forced queer migrants to be out in a particular way and rejecting those who do not conform. By applying a qualitative case-study and intersectionality-informed methodology, this study investigates the key factors that influence queer asylum seekers and refugees’ decision to come out (or not), and how they negotiate the closet within an environment that is often experienced as hostile. In doing so, this article shows that to both stay safe and receive protection, queer asylum seekers in reception centers in Belgium have to navigate a complex context where they need to constantly balance between their hypervisibility at the very individual level – as ‘queer’ – and their invisibility at the more structural level – within the asylum system itself.

scholarly journals Insiders but Outsiders: The Struggle for the Inclusion of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in South Africa

Refuge ◽  
2007 ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Florencia Belvedere
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Urban Refugees ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

This article examines the politics of urban refugees in South Africa. It shows that despite South Africa’s adoption of an encompassing rights-regarding legal framework that has the potential to be inclusive towards asylum seekers and refugees in the country and afford them basic human rights and protection, asylum seekers and refugees nonetheless remain “internally excluded,” predominantly as a result of practices adopted by a nationalist Department of Home Affairs to implement refugee legislation and by the UNHCR in its quest to prioritize the safeguarding of the institution of asylum. The article also shows how the adoption of these practices has been facilitated by a construction of asylum seekers and refugees as “bogus” claimants who have no place in post-apartheid South Africa.

scholarly journals Bridges and doorways: using interviews to build relationships

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Vivyan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Relationship Development ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Explicit Consideration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees

This article explores the use of interviews as a tool for relationship development in the context of conducting mixed methods qualitative research during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. It demonstrates that beyond being a source of data, interviews can be instrumental in opening doors to hard to reach informants and can form bridges between phases of fieldwork. This article draws on my PhD project which is looking at a single case study charity working with asylum seekers and refugees. The research is being undertaken through the view of a leadership-as-practice lens but the implications for how we view interviews may be of relevance to a wide range of mixed methods qualitative research. In particular, researchers whose work requires them to gain and maintain access may benefit from a more explicit consideration of the normally implicit ways interviews are used as tools in research.

scholarly journals Layered journeys: Experiences of fragmented journeys among young Afghans in Greece and Norway

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moa Nyamwathi LØnning
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Past ◽  
Migration History ◽  
History Of ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
Migratory Movements

Abstract This article focuses on the fragmented journeys towards and within Europe among a group of young people originating from a country marked by war and conflict. It explores how the journey towards Europe may be part of a complex migration history that leads to layered journeys. I use the term ‘layered journeys’ to refer to multidimensional and multi-experiential journeys in which past, present and future experiences of mobility are intertwined. They may include multiple stages and various statuses. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork, creative methods and life-history interviews. It focuses on a case study of a group of young Afghan males who arrived in Greece and Norway between 2008 and 2015, looking at their journeys in the context of mobility, undocumentedness and return. Young Afghans have represented the largest group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers arriving in Europe between 2008 and 2018. While the last decade saw a considerable increase in the number of young Afghans arriving in Europe, migration itself is not a new phenomenon in the Afghan context. Afghanistan has a long history of migratory movements as part of livelihood and survival strategies, of which the past four decades of war and conflict in Afghanistan and its resulting millions of refugees are part.

The Role of Primary Social Groups in Migration Decision-Making: A Case Study of Chinese Students in Australia

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Gao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Community Analysis ◽  
Migration Decision ◽  
Decision Making Unit ◽  
Basic Characteristics

This article sought to analyze the role of primary social groups on the migration decision-making process of on-shore asylum seekers. Previous research on migration decision-making had been dominated by an individual-family-community analysis, and failed to consider the role of other social groups. This article is based on research on the Chinese students living in Australia at the time of the June 4, 1989 event in Beijing. Their experience was used to conceptualize the role of the migrants' primary social groups in migration decisions. The article addressed several themes of group-based migration decision-making and outlined the basic characteristics of the primary social group as a decision-making unit.

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