LEFT HANGING: HOW FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES EXPLOIT LOOPHOLES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW AND LEGAL DOCTRINE IN ORDER TO SUBVERT THE RIGHTS OF REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
Date
2025-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the policy actions of four advanced
industrial countries and their use of loopholes and other tactics to sidestep
international law regarding refugees and asylum seekers. Inspired in part by fieldwork
in 2024 working with refugees and asylum seekers in Denmark, the paper discusses
how the Danish “zero-asylum” policy and immigration system evades and corrupts the
intention of 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. My subsequent
comparative research has demonstrated that these evasive and “deterrence” policy
tactics exist in other first-world countries. This paper focuses specifically on instances
in Denmark, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. (The Japanese case
illustrates how this phenomenon is global and not specific to Western polities.) The
paper develops these four case studies, examining each country’s refugee policies in
practice, the relevant international legal sources and precedents, and the impact of
these practices on refugee populations. I situate these cases in a cross-country analysis
to expose a common pattern of exploited legal loopholes. My conclusions speak to
possible legal responses or solutions to mitigate this problem in the future and
safeguard the intentions of international refugee law.