This book examines the impact and effects of refugee externalisation policies in two regions: Australia's border control practices in Southeast Asia and the Pacific and the activities of the European Union and its member states in North Africa. The book assesses the underlying motivations, processes, policy frameworks and human rights violations of refugee externalisation practices. Case studies illuminate the funding, institutional partnerships, geopolitical impacts, financial costs and the human price of refugee externalisation. It provides the first truly comparative analysis of asylum externalisation and explores maritime interdiction, extraterritorial process, containment and third-country interception, and communication campaigns in Southeast Asia and the Middle East/North Africa. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of refugee and asylum studies, law, politics and the arts, legal practitioners, non-governmental organisations and policymakers grappling with the issues of detention, refugee externalisation practices and the growing need to find safety for the world's most vulnerable.

This book provides a thorough legal analysis of the United States Migrant Interdiction Program, examining the United States' compliance with its obligations under municipal and international law as it interdicts individuals at sea, conducts status determinations, and returns those interdicted to their home countries. This book also examines the rights of the small number of refugees and individuals at risk of torture detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, awaiting resettlement in third countries. Policy-makers, students and scholars will benefit from this book's clarification of the legal obligations of nations engaged in extraterritorial status determination and detention, as well as its blueprint for compliance with international human rights and refugee law. As the first book of its kind devoted to the United States' interdiction program, this work represents an important contribution to scholarship in refugee law and policy, US constitutional law, international maritime law, and international human rights law.

This book explores Australia's ambivalent legal and political response to irregular migration, including the unplanned arrival of people variously known as asylum seekers, boat people, illegals, queue jumpera and economic migrants. Part 1 outlines how many people arrive, who they are, where they come from, and why they come. It also compares Australia's experience of irregular migration to that of other countries, in light of the vast global movements of people and increasingly exploitative practices such as people smuggling and people trafficking. The core of the book addresses the complex system of refugee law and policy in Australia. It explains the legal definition of who is a refugee and the administrative and judicial procedures for applying this definition to determine refugee status. It traces the changes to law and policy since 2001 following the infamous Tampa affair, the introduction of the Pacific Strategy, and the extension to West Papuans in 2006 of the policy of interdicting, deflecting, and processing asylum seekers offshore on Nauru and Christmas Island. The final part of this book examines equally controversial laws and policies requiring the mandatory detention of unlawful non-citizens, including the key High Court decisions which confirmed the parliament's power to detain a person indefinitely and in breach of international human rights law. The living conditions in the detention centres and how Australia's laws compare with other countries are also discussed. Future Seekers II builds on a shorter book by two of the authors in 2002. This book responds to the many changes to refugee and migration law between 2002 and 2006 and its deeper coverage of the issues reflects the growing sophistication of public understanding of and concern about refugee issues in Australia.