Katerina Komi
(Institute for Mediterranean Studies-FORTH and University of Crete)
When I meet others like me I recognise the longing, the missing, the memory of ash on their faces. No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.
Warsan Shire, Conversations About Home (at the Deportation Centre)
The Argives have resolved, with no divided voice, but in such a way that my aged heart felt young again – for the air bristled with their aptly named right hands as the entire people ratified this proposal – that we shall have the right of residence in this land in freedom, with asylum and protection from seizure by any person; that no one, whether inhabitant or foreigner, may lay hands upon us; and that if force be applied, whoever among these citizens fails to come to our aid shall lose his civic rights and be driven into exile from the community.
Aeschylus, The Suppliants, trans. Alan H. Sommerstein
The twenty-first century has been indelibly marked by an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy that seems to have no end. Many civil and inter-state wars, nationalist conflicts, racial liquidations, and rights violations have forced millions of people to flee their homes. Under the threat of death, torture, or persecution on the basis of ideology, religion, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation, the forcibly displaced people of our times are seeking new homelands. Through often dangerous routes they seek to reach countries that can offer them a safe haven, where they will be able to build a future free from terror and violence. Their goal is asylum, a word that encompasses humanitarian values and fundamental rights, as well as complex bureaucratic/legal procedures and policies for managing refugee populations.
Etymologically, the word “asylum” derives from the ancient Greek verb συλαώ/συλώ (sylao/sylo, to loot, plunder, seize by force). It is the neuter gender of the adjective άσυλος (asylos), meaning the one who is not plundered, is unapproachable and therefore safe. In ancient Greece, asylum was understood to mean a sacred place to which the suppliants (persecuted persons seeking protection) resorted and where their arrest or any form of violence against them was forbidden as an act that constituted sacrilege. Closely linked to hospitality, asylum was countrywide and universal. During the Hellenistic period, the asylum was established as an institution concerning inter-state relations; and legal regulations recognized the immunity of specific cities (Kareli 2018, 19). In addition to ancient Greece, forms of immunity were granted to persecuted persons in Ancient Israel, Egypt, and the Roman Empire, while in medieval England temporary refuge was given to those who fled to Christian churches.
In more recent years, the tragedy of World War II, with the millions of refugees and those who could not find refuge and were killed in concentration camps, made the need for a modern form of asylum – an institutional framework for international protection – imperative. In 1951, the Geneva Convention was signed, where for the first time the rights of refugees were clearly formulated. The Convention, which was amended and extended in time and place in 1967, with the New York Protocol, is still the fundamental legal text on asylum issues: it clarifies the status of refugees, explicitly states the rights of those who have the right of international protection, and establishes the legal obligations of the states towards them.
According to the first article of the Convention, a refugee/asylum seeker is defined as any person who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country” (Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951, 16). A key clause of the Convention is the “Principle of Non-Refoulement,” according to which the host country is prohibited from refoulement or expulsion of refugees to the frontiers of a country where their live or freedom is threatened (p. 32). In addition, the text of the Convention guarantees essential rights of refugees such as the right to identity and travel documents, freedom of religion, freedom of movement and the right to work, accommodation, and public education (p. 23-30).
Asylum seekers constitute a special category of migrants/displaced persons, defined as ‘bureaucratic’ or ‘legal’ (Bhatia 2015, 101; Mayblin 2017, 6), essentially being refugees awaiting recognition of their refugee status. They are individuals who arrive in a country, the host country – with or without documents – claiming international protection. In order to be recognised as beneficiaries of asylum, they have to prove before a competent authority, through an individualized interview, that they do not wish or cannot return to their country of origin because of past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, as provided for in the Geneva Convention (Bohmer & Shuman 2008, 178). According to the UNHCR, although there is no universally accepted definition of what persecution means, “It can be considered to encompass serious human rights violations, including a threat to life or freedom, as well as other kinds of serious harm” (UNCHR 2021). Pending a final decision, asylum seekers are placed under temporary protection status and are not allowed to be sent back or deported. If their application is accepted, they acquire refugee status. In the event of a refusal, they either enter subsidiary protection status or the procedures for their expulsion are initiated.
There is no doubt that asylum is an important achievement of the international community. However, despite the fact that 145 countries have ratified the Geneva Convention to date, making clear their commitment to providing protection, the asylum institution is suffering severely, prompting scholars to speak of a ‘crisis’, ‘abolition’ or even its ‘death’ (Gibney 2004, 229; Klepp 2010, 8; Muntz 2020, xi). To a large extent, the developed countries of the West, a major refugee destination, are responsible, on the one hand proclaiming their loyalty to the institution and on the other hand dismantling it through a series of preventive, deterrent, and repressive measures.
Yet the current response of Western states to refugees and asylum seekers is characterised by a kind of ‘organized hypocrisy’. Liberal democratic states publicly avow the principle of asylum but use fair means and foul to prevent as many asylum seekers as possible from arriving on their territory where they could claim its protections. ( Gibney 2004, 229).
Among other things, Western governments are erecting fences and border walls, adopting closed border tactics, strengthening border controls, increasing the number of border guards. They designate other countries as “safe” in order to stop refugee flows, with financial or political rewards (see The European Union-Turkey Agreement 2016), or make economic agreements with other countries, where asylum seekers are brought and detained without the right of appeal or a timeframe for the examination of their application (cf. Australia-Papua New Guinea Agreement 2013). They also engage in illegal refoulement, push-backs, and maritime interceptions at the cost of large numbers of human lives (see, for example, Muntz 2020; Fitzerald 2020, 190-217, 228-252). Human rights violations are even recorded during the asylum process: asylum seekers are detained in camps and closed, controlled structures and face deplorable living conditions, difficulties in accessing services, time-consuming practices, social isolation, degrading treatment, police violence, and racism (see, e.g., Kalpouzos and Man 2015, 1-28; Human Rights Watch 2020; Türk and Dowd 2014, 382). The whole system, which prioritises political incentives and bureaucratic procedures, dehumanises them. They are not treated as human beings with non-negotiable rights but as a problem that needs to be managed and solved.
The reasons for the crisis in the asylum institution are manifold. The explosion in refugee populations and consequently in the number of asylum seekers, due to political developments and the spate of wars in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in recent years, has confronted the governments of many Western countries with responsibilities they are unwilling to assume (for example, the number of refugees and persons in need of international protection increased from 10.5 million in 2010 to 29.4 million in 2022, UNCHR, “Refugee Data Finder”).
The rise of nationalism, right-wing populism and the extreme right, the prevalence of neoliberalism, and the growth of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism in host countries have encouraged and enabled anti-refugee policies. In dominant discourse, entangled in orientalist and colonialist stereotypes, asylum seekers have been demonised as a threat. They have been presented as hordes of others invading the West to dismantle its national and cultural identity. They have also been targeted as a burden on welfare systems, while in the context of the general anti-immigration rhetoric, asylum has been attacked as a backdoor for irregular migrants who infiltrate the West with a false history of persecution and endanger its economic prosperity. In addition, the growing fear of security issues, with applicants being identified in public discourse with potential terrorists, has led to the securitization of asylum policies (see, for example, Peterie & Neil 2020; Perocco 2018; Hammerstadt 2014, 265-271). The multiple negative constructions of asylum seekers have led to the adoption of measures that circumvent the notion of asylum, as a status of safety and protection, because: “The transformation […] of asylum seeker to a problematic and deviant category of ‘bogus’ and ‘illegal’ migrant, and then to dangerous foreign criminal, terrorist and foreign enemy has resulted in replacing compassion with punishment and integration with imprisonment, exclusion and expulsion from the state” (Bahtia 2015, 101).
In a period of asylum crisis, mention should be made of people, groups, and organisations that, without paternalistic attitudes that perpetuate power relations, fight together with asylum seekers to defend their rights, support their demands, and work with them to create a common future. They are the ones who demonstrate in practice that the only solution to anti-refugee policies is solidarity. Not as an abstract concept referring to an ethics of giving, but as a fundamental principle of a new treaty at the political and social level: a set of practices that would be able “ not only to create connections between migrants and citizens but also to build common terrains – in terms of political claims and strategies” (Tazzioli & Winters 2019), an “emancipatory solidarity with others within the framework of an egalitarian relationship, which entails a process of continued negotiation rather than the production of docile subjects who must perform suffering to deserve our support” (Fotaki 2021), a transnational political solidarity that is the basis for the realisation of new models and structures of alliance, partnership, and cooperation against geopolitical interests, anti-immigration, neoliberal, and colonial policies, and intolerance.
References
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 https://www.onlinelibrary.iihl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/1951CO1.pdf [18 March 2024]
Bhatia Monish, “Turning Asylum Seekers into ‘Dangerous Criminals’: Experiences of the Criminal Justice System of Those Seeking Sanctuary”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 4(3), 98-111, 2015.
Bohmer Carol, Shuman Amy, Rejecting Refugees: Political Asylum in the 21st Century, Routledge, London & New York, 2008.
Kalpouzos Ioannis, Mann Itamar, “Banal Crimes Against Humanity: The Case of Asylum Seekers in Greece”, Melbourne Journal of International Law, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1-29, 2015.
Karelli Despoina (Καρέλλη Δέσποινα), Το μοτίβο της ασυλίας στην αρχαία ελληνική τραγωδία και η αποτύπωσή του στην αγγειογραφία της κλασικής εποχής, PhD. Thesis, Πανεπιστήμιο Πελοποννήσου, Ναύπλιο 2018.
Klepp Silja, “A Contested Asylum System: The European Union between Refugee Protection and Border Control in the Mediterranean Sea”, European Journal of Migration and Law, 12(1), 1-21, 2010 https://doi.org/10.1163/138836410X13476363652523 [25 March 2024]
Muntz Alison, The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis & London, 2020.
Fitzerald David Scott, Refuge beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2020.
Fotaki Marianna, “Solidarity in crisis? Community responses to refugees and forced migrants in the Greek islands”, Organization, 29(2), 295-323, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084211051048 [25 March 2024]
Gibney Matthew J., The Ethics and Politics of Asylum: Liberal Democracy and the Response to Refugees, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004.
Hammerstadt Anne, “The Securitization of Forced Migration”, Forced Migration Studies, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long and Nando Sigona, eds, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, 265-277.
Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch submission to the Europe and North America Regional Review on implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, 2020.
Perocco Fabio, “Anti-migrant Islamophobia in Europe. Social roots, mechanisms and actors”, Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, 26. 25-40, 2020.
Peterie Michelle, Neil David, “Xenophobia towards asylum seekers: A survey of social theories”. Journal of Sociology, 56(1), 23-35, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783319882526 [30 March 2024]
Tazzioli, Martina and Walters, William, “Migration, solidarity and the limits of Europe”, Global Discourse, 9(1), 2-17, 2019 https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26974/1/Walters%20Tazzioli%20Crimes%20of%20Solidarity%20.pdf [18 March 2024]
Türk Volker, Rebecca Dowd, “Protection Gaps”, The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long and Nando Sigona, eds, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, 278–289.
UNCHR, Master Glossary (2021)
https://www.unhcr.org/glossary [25 March 2024]
UNCHR, Global Trends: Forced Diplacement in 2022 (2022)
https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2022 [25 March 2024]
UNCHR, Refugee Data Finder (2024)
https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=OJpI9o [25 March 2024]
https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=OJpI9o
Asylum seekers in cinema (fiction films and documentaries)
Last Resort (2000), dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
In This World (2002), dir. Michael Winterbottom
Letters to Ali (2004), dir. Clara Law
Inatteso (2005), dir. Domenico Distilo
Auf der anderen Seite (2007), dir. Fatih Akin
Umut adasi (2007), dir. Mustafa Kara
La Forteresse (2008), dir. Fernand Melgar
Weilerbach (2008), dir. Yann Tonnar
Ein Augenblick Freiheit (2008), dir. Arash T. Riahi
Only Thinking (2009), dir. Gabriel Merrun
Welcome (2009), dir. Philippe Lioret
Jälki elämässä – 4 tarinaa kidutuksesta (2011), dir. Mervi Junkkonen
De Andre (2012), dir. Margreth Olin
How Much Further? (2012), dir. Matthias Wiessler
La pirogue (2012), dir. Moussa Touré
Parvaneh (2012), dir. Talkhon Hamzavi
Those Who Go Those Who Stay (2013), dir. Ruth Beckermann
Into the Fire: The Hidden Victims of Austerity in Greece (2013), dir. Kate Mara and Guy Smallman
6954 kilometriä kotiin (2013), dir. Juan Reina
Terra di Transito (2014), dir. Paolo Martini
Those Who Feel the Fire Burning (2014), dir. Morgan Knibbe
Asylum (2015), dir. Uzair Sipra
Dheepan (2015), dir. Jacques Audiard
Freedom Stories (2015), dir. Steve Thomas
Bein gderot (2016), dir. Avi Mograbi
Chasing Asylum (2016), dir. Eva Orner
Les Portes d’Arcadie (2016), dir. Carole Grand
Hotel Splendid (2016), dir. Mauro Bucci
Geschwister (2016), dir. Markus Mörth
Tuntematon pakolainen (2016), dir. Hamy Ramezan
Tales of Two Who Dreamt (2016), dir. Andrea Bussmann & Nicolás Pereda
Born in Syria (2016), dir. Hernán Zin
Refugee (2016), dir. Clementine Malpas
Stranger in Paradise (2016), dir. Guido Hendrikx
Fuocoammare (2016), dir. Gianfranco Rosi
Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time (2017), dir. Behrouz Boochani & Arash Kamali Sarvestani
Toivon tuolla puolen (2017), dir. Aki Kaurismäki
Une saison en France (2017), dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Willkommen in der Schweiz (2017), dir. Sabine Gisiger
Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2018), dir. Gabrielle Brady
Refugee (2018), dir. Alexander J. Farrell
Andið eðlilega (2018), dir. Isold Uggadottir
Not Allowed (2018), dir. Dimitar Anakiev
Aurora (2019), dir. Miia Tervo
Ghabe (2019), dir. Markus Castro
El guardián de la memoria (2019), dir. Marcela Arteaga
Le bon grain et l’ivraie (2019), dir. Manuela Frésil
Midnight Traveler (2019), dir. Hassan Fazili
Sanctuary (2019), dir. Kaye Harrison
Shelter: Farewell to Eden (2019), dir. Enrico Masi
Ensilumi (2020), dir. Hamy Ramezan
Limbo (2020), dir. Ben Sharrock
Wir (2020), dir. Faraz Shariat
Min bror, mit hjem (2021), dir. Kathrine Ravn Kruse
Simple as Water (2021), dir. Megan Mylan
Scattered People (2021), dir. John Swatland
Routes (2021), dir. Petar Bojovic
Strahinja Banovic (2021), dir. Stefan Arsenijevic
Flee (2021), dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Blue/Red/Deport (2022), dir. Lina Luzyte
Citizen of Moria (2022), dir. Ahmad Ebrahimi, Jawad Mir
Aisha (2022), dir. Frank Berry
A Happy Day (2023), dir. Hisham Zaman
Seeking Asylum: A Mother’s Journey (2023), dir. Rae Ceretto
On Our Doorstep (2023), dir. Thomas Laurance