Access to Asylum

Is there still a right to seek asylum in a globalised world? Migration control has increasingly moved to the high seas or the territory of transit and origin countries, and is now commonly outsourced to private actors. Under threat of financial penalties airlines today reject any passenger not in possession of a valid visa, and private contractors are used to run detention centres and man border crossings. In this volume Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen examines the impact of these new practices for refugees' access to asylum. A systematic analysis is provided of the reach and limits of international refugee law when migration control is carried out extraterritorially or by non-state actors. State practice from around the globe and case law from all the major human rights institutions is discussed. The arguments are further linked to wider debates in human rights, general international law and political science.

Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen is Research Fellow at the Danish Institute for International Studies and External Lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, where he teaches international refugee law. He is also an associated legal expert to the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, a former policy analyst with the Danish Refugee Council and a regular consultant to a number of international organisations and non-governmental organisations.