Dilemmas of Human Rights and Security in Asia

In the last ten years, Europe has been dealing with major refugee flows. The migration of large numbers of people to Europe and North America has multiple causes which include regional conflicts, the consequences of global warming, political opposition to autocratic regimes and societal inequalities which involve the exploitation of people for labour or sexual purposes. The UNHCR states: “There are 9.2 million people of concern to UNHCR across Asia and the Pacific, including 4.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers, 3.3 million internally displaced people and 2.3 million stateless persons.” The phenomenon of migration includes migration for labour, for economic advancement, fleeing political persecution as well as human trafficking/slavery. The migration of people to Europe has become a significant political issue, especially in member states of the European Union but also in the United Kingdom. While the protection of people from persecution and exploitation is part of the core values of liberal democracies, the practical implications have given rise to political controversy. The issue gained particular political salience during the refugee ‘crisis’ in 2015–2016 when 1.3 million asylum seekers arrived in Europe. This precipitated such a level of discord between the EU member states that the EU system for managing refugees practically collapsed. The impact on European societies was summarised by an academic study as follows: - “Europe is facing an unprecedented number of newcomers, diverse in terms of educational background and skills, a challenge for any socio-economic integration programs; - Germany absorbed more refugees than any other country in the EU, in absolute terms. Still, on a per-capita basis, Sweden and Austria are the largest destination countries. In 2015, Germany adopted the highly criticized “open border” policy, taking in 890,000 refugees and receiving 476,649 formal applications for political asylum; - In the latest inflows, a relevant part is represented by unaccompanied children, exposed to serious emotional and physical distress; - Economic migrants are blended in the general inflows of refugees, so it is important to distinct between those in need for humanitarian support and those in search for a better life, who may return to their home countries, without endangering their lives; - Most of the newcomers used illegal networks to access transit and destination countries in Europe; - EU allocated more than 2 billion euros for humanitarian and non-humanitarian aid, in order to support refugees; - Due to the forced nature of their migration and the traumatic experiences frequently associated with it, many refugees suffer from psychological strain, a topic barely included in any host country intervention programs” Different countries have developed a variety of strategies of dealing with refugees Refugees claiming asylum are subjected to a rigorous process in which their applications are considered. If their claims are not accepted, they can go to court and quite frequently administrative decisions are overturned, although this differs from country to country. In the United Kingdom, it could be argued, the process has guided by the political priority to limit the number of migrants and recipients of asylum protection, the ultimate manifestation of which is now to compel refugees to go to Rwanda in order for the process to be completed and even if successful they will not be able to return to the United Kingdom. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 stated that “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”. This principle was codified further in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 1967. A refugee is defined as a person who is located outside the country of which he or she is a national due to fear of persecution on certain grounds, such as race, nationality, religion, political opinions or membership of a particular social group or participation in certain social activities. In the European Union, the right to asylum is also provided for by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects the right to a private and family life. The key factors that give rise to migration from Asia to Europe are different in some respect from those that apply to Africa and the Middle East. Asian refugees are not generally fleeing violent conflict zones, but fall into several categories. One obvious category is political repression and fleeing from persecution for being part of pro-democracy groups that are engaged in political activism against authoritarian governments. This is the case in China, Vietnam, and North Korea although in the latter case refugees may just be fleeing repression and there is no scope for political activities as such. Another category is victims of human trafficking. The traffickers are criminal gangs who offer migration services to those seeking overseas work as they find it impossible to find work that enables them to build a decent life and they become trapped in labour exploitation (restaurants, households or nail salons, seafood harvesting and various other activities), prostitution or even various illegal activities such as selling illegal cigarettes or producing cannabis. The research for this has focussed on migrants and refugees from Asia, in particular, China, North Korea and Vietnam in East Asia and Pakistan and India in South AsiaIt is acknowledged that there are other areas, especially in South East Asia where there are significant source and destination countries for refugees. Thus the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, reported: “Though the global refugee crisis is often framed as a Western problem, developing countries host 85 percent of the world’s displaced populations. Southeast Asia hosted 2.1 million forced migrants in 2021, and among them, almost 300,000 are refugees and asylum seekers. However, most Southeast Asian countries are not signatories of international refugee treaties, and they have yet to develop a regional mechanism to coordinate policy responses to refugee populations. Mirroring ASEAN’s preference for non-interference and non-legally binding agreements, Southeast Asian countries have implemented a patchwork of regulations responding to crises as they arise. The region’s ad hoc approach to humanitarianism, combined with the international community’s apathy, has marginalized refugees.”