Access to Asylum International Refugee Law and the Globalisation of Migration Control

Is there still a right to seek asylum in a globalised world? Migration control has increasingly moved to the high seas or the territory of transit and origin countries, and is now commonly outsourced to private actors. Under threat of financial penalties airlines today reject any passenger not in possession of a valid visa, and private contractors are used to run detention centres and man border crossings. In this 2011 volume Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen examines the impact of these new practices for refugees' access to asylum. A systematic analysis is provided of the reach and limits of international refugee law when migration control is carried out extraterritorially or by non-state actors. State practice from around the globe and case law from all the major human rights institutions is discussed. The arguments are further linked to wider debates in human rights, general international law and political science.

• Provides the first systematic analysis of extraterritorial obligations and state responsibility for private actors under international refugee law, thus bridging an existing legal gap

• Contextualizes the topic within the broader legal debate, literature and case law surrounding extra territoriality and privatisation

• Legal analysis is complemented by a set of more interdisciplinary perspectives, bringing in insights from political science and international relations