Asylum Seekers
Those seeking asylum within the United Kingdom and the United States are confronted with obstacles that are in direct opposition to the responsibilities to refugees as per United Nations Council Resolutions (1967). The US and UK have implemented deterrence policies that classify these asylum seekers as deviant outsiders (Frey& Zhao, 2011). The employment of widespread use of detention, the passing of legislation that deny this fundamental human right to protection, as well as the negative depiction of asylum seekers in the press all combine to effectively criminalize protection seekers (Hassan, 2000). This paper seeks to illustrate the various policies by which the asylum seeker in US and UK is criminalized, and contextualization of this process
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Since the attacks of September 11, other strict measures have been established that adversely affect asylum seekers in the US, including Operation Liberty Shield and the Blanket Detention Order of 2003. Human rights advocates are appalled by a recent program officially titled Operation Liberty Shield that was initiated by the DHS on the eve of the war with Iraq (Coleman, 2011). That program requires detention of asylum seekers from 33 countries where Al Qaeda has been known to operate (Hassan, 2014). Under Operation Liberty Shield, even asylum seekers who did not raise any suspicions of security or flight risks were slated for detention for the duration of their asylum proceedings (estimated by the Department to be six months or significantly longer if the case was appealed). Consequently, many of them would be deprived of a meaningful opportunity to request release through parole (DHS, …show more content…
By painting asylum as anything but the actual asking of protection, the very claiming of this basic human right has been deemed deviant behavior: The asylum seeker, once prompting human compassion and triggering an urge to help, has been tarnished and the very idea of ‘asylum’, once a matter of civil and civilized pride, has been reclassified as a dreadful concoction of shameful and criminal irresponsibility (Bauman, 2004: 57). Seeking sanctuary, therefore, has come to make rule breakers out of individuals seeking refuge and/or
Since the attacks of September 11, other strict measures have been established that adversely affect asylum seekers in the US, including Operation Liberty Shield and the Blanket Detention Order of 2003. Human rights advocates are appalled by a recent program officially titled Operation Liberty Shield that was initiated by the DHS on the eve of the war with Iraq (Coleman, 2011). That program requires detention of asylum seekers from 33 countries where Al Qaeda has been known to operate (Hassan, 2014). Under Operation Liberty Shield, even asylum seekers who did not raise any suspicions of security or flight risks were slated for detention for the duration of their asylum proceedings (estimated by the Department to be six months or significantly longer if the case was appealed). Consequently, many of them would be deprived of a meaningful opportunity to request release through parole (DHS, …show more content…
By painting asylum as anything but the actual asking of protection, the very claiming of this basic human right has been deemed deviant behavior: The asylum seeker, once prompting human compassion and triggering an urge to help, has been tarnished and the very idea of ‘asylum’, once a matter of civil and civilized pride, has been reclassified as a dreadful concoction of shameful and criminal irresponsibility (Bauman, 2004: 57). Seeking sanctuary, therefore, has come to make rule breakers out of individuals seeking refuge and/or