Refugee Law

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Are all Afghan women and girls refugees? An analysis in light of the Refugee Convention

December 22, 2022

Following the withdrawal of the United States (US) and international forces in July 2021, the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan.  Since the Taliban takeover, women and girls have been denied a number of fundamental rights and subjected to various discriminatory measures – including restrictions on education, work, movement and freedom of expression and speech. On 20 December 2022, restricting the right to education of Afghan women further, the Taliban banned women from universities. These recent developments raise a crucial question: should any Afghan woman or girl fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover be recognised as a refugee under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention)? Here we attempt to answer this question and argue that all Afghan women and girls fleeing Taliban rule should be recognised, as a group, as refugees under the 1951 Convention.   First, we briefly outline state responses to the Taliban takeover ranging from evacuations to resettlement to treatment of Afghan women…

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Pushbacks and Lawlessness

March 25, 2022

Dozens of cases before the European Court of Human Rights claim that Greek authorities are engaged in a policy of secret returns of persons seeking asylum back to Turkey, or ‘pushbacks’. Α post on this blog, ‘Pushbacks as Euphemism’ by Niamh Keady-Tabbai and Itamar Mann drew attenttion to the alleged ‘driftbacks’ in the Aegean. These, however,…

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The International Law of Protected Spaces and the Collapse of the Humanitarian Corridors in Ukraine

March 11, 2022

As the war in Ukraine deepens, the UN Refugee Agency has warned that Europe sits on the precipice of its ‘largest refugee crisis this century’. Over a million people have already fled the Russian invasion within the first seven days of conflict alone, and numbers are expected to rise exponentially. Simultaneously, while the refugee crisis grows…

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A Former Danish Minister for Immigration is Sentenced: A new Chapter in the Danish ‘Migrants Saga’

December 29, 2021

On December 13 2021 the Danish Court of Impeachment (Rigsretten) convicted Inger Støjberg, a former Minister of Immigration, for having unlawfully instructed public authorities to separate migrant couples one of whom was a minor. This special Court, which Parliament assembles, exists to try ministers accused of maladministration. Although nominally a permanent body, the assembly of the Court…

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The New Palestinian Refugees

May 19, 2021

According to numbers The Guardian published on May 17, 2021, the current Israeli attack on Gaza has killed 200 Palestinians, including 59 children. 34,000 have been displaced from their homes. It is hard to assess the accuracy of these numbers. Very likely, the death toll will be higher: the violence has not ebbed, and bodies…

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