Accessing Asylum in Europe: Extraterritorial Border Controls and Refugee Rights Under EU Law
Europe
is currently experiencing a so-called "refugee crisis," demonstrated by
millions of displaced people unseen since World War II. This book
examines the interface between the EU's response to irregular flows, in
particular the main extraterritorial border and migration controls taken
by the Member States, and the rights asylum seekers acquire from EU
law.
"Remote control" techniques, such as the imposition of visas,
fines on carriers transporting unsatisfactorily documented third-country
nationals, and interception at sea are investigated in detail in a bid
to assess the impact these measures have on access to asylum in the EU.
The book also thoroughly analyses the rights recognised by the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights to persons in need of international
protection, inclusive of the principle of non-refoulement, the right to
leave any country including one's own, the right to asylum, and the
right to remedies and effective judicial protection.
The
fundamental focus of the book is the relationship between the
aforementioned border and migration controls and the rights of asylum
seekers and, most importantly, how these rights (should) limit the scope
of such measures and the ways in which they are implemented. The
ultimate goal is to conclude whether the current series of
extraterritorial mechanisms of pre-entry vetting is compatible in EU law
with the EU rights of refugees and forced migrants.
