The invisible walls of asylum: the ineffective application of asylum law in a postcolonial Europe

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If the international protection of refugees and stateless persons is guaranteed by the Geneva Convention of 1951, the colonial legacies of the European continent keep influencing the policies of asylum. Indeed, theses lack of effectivity and the fundamental rights and human rights of the refugees are often not respected. This paper assesses how this lack of effectiveness is partly due to the growing hostility towards refugees in Europe. This hostility finds its roots in the colonial discourse: culture of suspicion, “war on terror”, and securitization of asylum. Not only this hostile rhetoric is used in the media and the political debate, it also shapes the ethos of the civil servants towards refugees.

By: Mélissa Hamdi

Published on February 11, 2021

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