Barrister or Bankrupt: Shami Chakrabarti: "Asylum"

(Shami Chakrabarti with Michael Ellman, Chair of the Solicitor's International Human Rights Group)

I recently attended a talk given by Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty on the subject of asylum. Liberty is a prominent civil liberties and human rights organisation in the UK. When defining the landscape of the subject SC proposed that asylum be thought of as a "connector" between human rights at home and the ethics of foreign policy.

The talk was at least partly a discussion on semantics of terms in the field of asylum and immigration. I am now fascinated by how use of the phrase asylum seeker is constricting the normal use of the word refugee, so much so that nowadays it has more of a legal meaning - you are only a refugee when a government has accepted you as one. SC gave the example of boat people in the 1980s being commonly described as refugees in the British media before they had reached land (and therefore any official government designation). Might Vietnamese boat people heading here or to another friendly country nowadays be called asylum seekers by the same media sources?

Another point which I found interesting was that of the definition of nearest safe country in the context of changing concepts of borders. Whereas large groups of displaced poor people may still see escape across the nearest border as the best way of putting themselves in the nearest safe country, cannot any country with a direct flight connection to the country of escape also be regarded as "nearest" in many circumstances? The opportunity of escape might define what country was "nearest" to the escapee just as much as geographical distance.

The talk was organised by the Solicitors International Human Rights Group (SIHRG). The group's next event (on 22nd November 2006) sees Richard Gifford of Sheridans speaking on the Chagos Islanders.

"Notable Advocates" post on Shami Chakrabarti

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