James Hathaway’s call for a solution to the global refugee crisis is as bold as it is idealistic, but is it realizable in the world in which we live? His solution seems to rest on the creation of “a binding way” to “share out fairly” the allocation of burdens and responsibilities to states that refugees have not yet entered. Such a binding obligation would then be administered not as an exercise of state authority but rather through “a revitalized UNHCR” with authority to “administer quotas.” In short, it appears that this proposal advocates a role for UNHCR to establish binding quotas on states to admit refugees from countries of first asylum, according to their capacity to receive, process, and integrate them.
If Europe can be seen as a regional pilot project for such a global scheme, the results have not been promising. Using its qualified majority vote system to bind recalcitrant member states, the EU has largely failed to convince its members to participate in relocating asylum seekers from countries of first arrival to other EU member states according to their capacity to receive them and process their claims. The EU relocation scheme, at the time of this writing—more than four months since the plan was announced—has relocated fewer than 500 of 160,000 slated for transfer. So, it is hard to imagine that countries would subscribe globally to Hathaway’s more ambitious scheme, or that they would willingly bind themselves to responsibilities toward refugees who are not already on their territories. The pathetic response to UNHCR’s repeated admonitions on the need for more refugee resettlement places is similarly discouraging—though hope springs eternal as advocates anticipate the March 30 “Resettlement Plus” pledging conference.
The increasingly restrictive attitudes we are seeing in Europe do not bode well for expanding UN authority to tell countries to accept more refugees.My instincts as an advocate for refugee rights are to promote Hathaway’s model as a way of sharing responsibilities equitably among states, according to their capacity to protect and integrate refugees rather than the happenstance of their geographical location. His model, if implemented, would without doubt enhance enjoyment of the human right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries. It would guarantee countries that keep their borders open to asylum seekers that they will not be overburdened by the presence of refugees beyond their absorptive capacity. But the increasingly restrictive, beggar-thy-neighbor attitudes we are seeing in Europe do not bode well for expanding UN authority to tell countries to accept more refugees.
