Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy
Asylum has to be claimed in the FIRST safe country the asylum seeker gets to. Not traipse over half the planet just to get to the softest (i.e. UK) country to make the claim in.
Right of asylum |
Not it doesn't at all, it's a legal principle
There is no obligation under the refugee convention or any other instrument of international law that requires refugees to seek asylum in any particular country. There has, however, been a longstanding "first country of asylum" principle in international law by which countries are expected to take refugees fleeing from persecution in a neighbouring state. This principle has developed so that, in practice, an asylum seeker who had the opportunity to claim asylum in another country is liable to be returned there in order for his or her claim to be determined.
The domestic law on this issue is contained in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 and the immigration rules. Schedule 3 to the 2004 act contains lists of countries that are deemed to be safe for the purposes of the refugee convention and the UK's obligations under the European convention on human rights (for example, the obligation not to expose anyone to a real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment).
The immigration rules state, however, that the secretary of state will only remove an asylum seeker to a safe third country if there is clear evidence that the country concerned will admit the person. This will be so if the person has arrived in the UK via another safe country and had an opportunity at the border of or within that country to claim asylum. The mere fact that the person has passed through another country does not necessarily mean there was an opportunity to claim asylum; if an agent planned the journey and the person was hidden in a vehicle for the duration of it, for example, there is unlikely to have been any realistic opportunity for the person to approach the authorities.
source: The Guardian
and for some further reading....
http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/refugee...ylum-illegals/