Human Trafficking: Who Are Asylum Seekers? How Are They Different From Migrants And What Are Their Legal Rights?
276 Indian passengers on board a chartered aircraft bound for Nicaragua which was grounded in France over suspicion of human trafficking have returned to India.
While two of the total 303 passengers who were on the flight that took off from Dubai have been held in France as ¡®¡¯assisted witnesses'' in the human trafficking cases, 25 others, including five minors refused to return to India and have applied for asylum in France.
They have been transferred to a special zone in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers until their applications are processed.
Who is an asylum-seeker?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines an asylum-seeker as someone whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed.
According to Amnesty International, an asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn¡¯t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim.?
The term asylum-seekers is often used interchangeably with refugees and migrants, but there are some differences between the three.
Anyone can be an asylum seeker for so long as their application is pending. Not every asylum seeker will be recognised as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum seeker.
Asylum-seeker vs refugee vs migrant? ?
The UNHCR defines refugees as "persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection."
Rights of asylum-seekers
The UN agency describes an international migrant as "someone who changes his or her country of usual residence, irrespective of the reason for migration or legal status."
Unlike refugees who cannot safely return home, migrants face no such impediment to return.
It should be noted that the right to seek asylum is globally recognised and anyone who considers themselves at risk of serious harm in their country of origin, or who is compelled to leave their country in search of safety in another country.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 14) states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries.
The 1951 UN Refugee Convention (and its 1967 Protocol) protects refugees from being returned to countries where they risk being persecuted.
How asylum claims can be rejected?
While there are some general rules and guidelines for anyone to be considered an asylum seeker, in most cases, specific cases are determined by the laws and conventions of the particular country where the individual has sought protection, follows.
So an asylum application can be rejected by a country, even if the seeker claims they are in danger, but the authorities feel that there is no threat to the applicant's life in their homeland.
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