European politics and the shaping of human rights law : a case study of asylum law in the European Union

Abstract

Today, when the forces of globalisation at one level, and those of ethnic conflict, national secessions, and communal violence at another level contribute to instability in many parts of the world, the concepts of good governance, civil society, the protection of human rights/security, individual sovereignty and humanitarian intervention are gaining currency in policy discourse. The North-South divide continues to present a clear distinction between the Northern industrialised States and the Southern developing States resulting in vast economic, political and social difference between the regions. Distinctions which are evidenced practically everyday through the flows of irregular migrants who in their hundreds cross into the borders of the European Union. Hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees risk their lives trying to reach European borders seeking a better life, and yet upon their arrival they are often welcomed with national policies of detention, deportation and dispersal. Irregular migrants seeking refuge and asylum are treated as common criminals losing their freedom until they provide evidence as to why they have fled their homeland in search for safety and security. The international system to protect refugees is in crisis. In the decade following the end of the Cold War the numbers of men, women and children fleeing persecution and violent conflict or seeking escape from government regimes, continues to grow rapidly. European Union governments are faced with flows on irregular migrants claiming asylum. Yet these same governments which have ratified to international human rights mechanisms often chose to apply measures which tend to discourage asylum seekers from travelling to European Union borders. European Union treaties have since their very origins applied measures of restriction in relation to third-country nationals entering Community territory as a means of protection national sovereignty and economy.