How are refugee and other kinds of asylum statuses, and their attached set of rights, allocated and implemented in asylum governance instruments across various world regions and selected major refugee hosting countries? And how is the notion of ‘vulnerability’ understood, articulated and put into effect in these instruments? This Report examines key issues pertaining to refugee status determination, vulnerability and the right to work which characterise specific asylum governance instruments in Brazil, Canada, South Africa and Turkey. The following arrangements are covered: First, the Operation Welcome and the Interiorisation Programme in Brazil; Second, the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Programme and the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP); Third, the Zimbabwean Dispensation Programme (ZDP); and fourth, the EU-Turkey Statement and the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRiT). What are the ‘lessons learned’ in the design and implementation dynamics of these asylum governance instruments? Do they facilitate mobility and inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees, or do they rather feature containment-driven and exclusionary characteristics and practical effects? Are they compatible with the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees, and international and regional refugee and human rights standards?
This paper falls within the scope of the Horizon 2020 ASILE project (Global Asylum Governance and the EU’s Role in Implementing the UN Global Compact on Refugees).
