Identifying the World's Refugees

In a world in deep crisis, tendencies toward protectionism and xenophobia, as well as fear of new mass flows of asylum seekers, have brought the development of international instruments for the benefit of refugees to a virtual halt. The legal framework was formed during the 1950s and 1960s. There are several definitions of “refugee,†serving different purposes, and there is a trend to interpret and apply them more narrowly. The term “economic refugee†is a misnomer. There are many categories of de facto refugees, the common denominator being that they should not be forcibly returned to their homeland. States employ different, often very crude methods to stem the tide of would-be refugees. More humane and equitable practices could be developed at negligible financial and political cost; so too could a low-keyed protocol on territorial asylum, making us aware of our responsibility as fellow human beings.