“Weaponisation of refugees in the Trump era – you ain’t seen nothing yet” by Catherine Woollard
Here is an excerpt:
“The “weaponisation” or “instrumentalisation” of refugees is nothing new – displaced people have been manipulated by states throughout all of history – indeed before there even were states, powerful forces used forcible displacement of the vulnerable to achieve their objectives. In recent European policy and law making, using the pretence that this is something new, a partially successful campaign has been made to allow states to ignore their legal obligations in situations of so-called instrumentalisation. The ultimate aim – currently fervently advocated by the government of Poland in various non-papers, but also by many states in their interventions in a group of cases at the European Court of Human Rights, is to undermine the principle of non-refoulement. Their argument is that they should be allowed to pushback, refoule, or deny access to asylum to people at the borders when they have been used by hostile states. . . . The risks are that Europe allows an unnecessary crisis to develop – that it allows its enemies to provoke a crisis through manipulating the movement of people and through discourse, thinking and fear on the issue. The way to neutralise the threat is to avoid actions that collapse the system, to stop making promises that can’t be kept, and to manage the system. The last thing Europe needs is a “refugee crisis”. As its old – and new – enemies well know.”
IE