The Externalisation of EU Asylum Policy: The Position of African States New DIIS Brief by Alexander Betts and James Milner The paper explores the position of African states in the context of attempts by European states to externalise responsibility for asylum processing and refugee protection to refugees' regions of origin. It argues that the range of approaches developed by European states and their methods of cooperation misrepresent the position of African states in the global refugee regime. Drawing upon the example of Tanzania, which has been the focal point for a range of the new initiatives, the paper demonstrates how the existing European approach has failed to adequately recognise many of the constraints on asylum in Africa. Unless European states adapt their methods of cooperation and their implicit assumptions about African states, there is a risk of undermining rather than enhancing refugee protection in Africa. However, the paper suggests that this is not an inevitable outcome, and that an alternative approach is possible, which might better address the interests of the EU and African states while simultaneously enhancing refugee protection. The Externalisation of EU Asylum Policy: The Position of African StatesAlexander Betts and James MilnerDIIS Brief, December 2007, 9 p. Download free (pdf, 85 KB) The brief follows up the seminar Outsourcing Migration Control and Refugee Responsibilities – Problems and Potentials part of the Migration Thursdays-series. Dr Alexander Betts is a Senior Researcher at the Global Economic Governance Programme where he directs the Global Migration Governance Project. He is also the Hedley Bull Research Fellow in International Relations in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Wadham College. He has worked at UNHCR Headquarters, as a consultant for the Council of Europe, and as an advisor on the politics of migration and refugee protection to a number of European Governments and NGOs. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Durham, and an MSc in International Relations and an M.Phil in Development Studies. His current research focuses on North-South relations in the global refugee regime. James Milner completed a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies in 1997. He later worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in India, Cameroon, Guinea, and in the Geneva Headquarters. He was subsequently awarded a Trudeau Scholarship, and completed his doctorate in development studies at the University of Oxford. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. He is also Co-Director of The PRS Project, an international research project at Oxford that advises UN agencies, governments and NGOs on responses to protracted refugee situations. |
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