Refugee Status Determination

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the United Kingdom as an example of the state management of refugees as they enter a country and have their claims to refugee status determined. The administration of borders and refugee status determination processes vary from country to country as the Refugee Convention does not mandate any particular method for determining who is or is not a refugee. There are undoubtedly common themes as well as important differences which emerge from a comparative study but these issues are beyond the scope of this book. Bureaucratic processes are subject to constant change at the government department responsible for borders, immigration and asylum in the United Kingdom, the Home Office. Many such changes are essentially superficial, though, and at the time of writing, the basic structure of the refugee status determination process and the basic experience of the refugee had remained broadly constant since reforms introduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This ‘asylum system’ taken as a whole consists of several parts. The first is the externalized border, which as far as possible has been exported to external territories through visa regimes, carrier sanctions, juxtaposed border controls and security measures. These expedients prevent refugees from reaching the territory of the United Kingdom but are presented as being morally counterbalanced by a resettlement programme operated in cooperation with UNHCR which was first launched (at a very small scale) in 2003. The second is an accommodation and support system specific to refugees, into which refugees are forced because they are prohibited from work or self-employment until eventually formally recognized as a refugee.