Global Asylum Governance and the European Union’s Role

What are the characteristics and impacts of emerging international and European Union (EU) asylum governance regimes, and what are their policy implications on the EU’s role in implementing the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees (UN GCR), which calls for more equitable and effective arrangements for responsibility sharing? This is an especially pressing question as the UN GCR states that it is to be grounded in international refugee protection and international human rights instruments.

The ASILE project (Global Asylum Governance and the EU’s Role in Implementing the UN Global Compact on Refugees) has explored the changing relationship between containment and mobility in asylum governance from an international comparative perspective and in the EU. It has also examined the EU’s asylum policy considering its role and commitments in implementing the UN GCR.

ASILE has assessed asylum governance systems – instruments and actors – in selected world regions and countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Jordan, South Africa and Turkey, as well as EU third country cooperation asylum arrangements with Turkey, Serbia, Tunisia and Niger. The project has studied their practical implementation dynamics and impacts. It has evaluated their compatibility with international/regional refugee law and human rights standards, along with questions related to the attribution and allocation of multi-actor responsibilities in cases of human rights violations.