The effect of COVID-19 on exacerbating vulnerabilities of refugees worldwide
While the COVID-19 outbreak has undoubtedly affected most average individuals through the restriction of movement and increased risk of illness and death, vulnerable groups such as refugees have arguably felt the brunt of the pandemic worldwide.
For contextual information, the COVID-19 virus was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The scale of the outbreak only continued to grow and was later declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2020.[1] By which time, the virus had spread worldwide, and countries had to quickly impose measures to tackle the respective national outbreaks.
Many countries resorted to instilling lockdown orders during which all economic activities were suspended and closing its borders to foreigners. The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that around 167 countries fully or partially closed their borders and among those, 57 did not make any exceptions for people seeking asylum.[2] These include countries such as the US (whose Centre for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order suspending asylum processing for those arriving from Canada or Mexico), Greece which carried out boat pushbacks on boats of asylum seekers etc).[3] This is an infringement of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.
For countries which have ratified the 1957 Convention on the Status of Refugees, this would be a breach of their obligation under Article 33 to not expel refugees or asylum seekers to countries where there are reasonable grounds to believe they would face persecution on the grounds listed in Article 1A(2). While there is an exception in s.2 that allows the right to non-refoulement to not apply where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the individual is a danger to national security, countries should not be able to rely on this in the context of COVID-19 for two reasons. Firstly, the UNHCR previously set out that an individualised determination is required in deciding whether individuals are a danger to national security and refusal of entry en masse does not satisfy this. Additionally, the fact that the groups may be carriers of the COVID-19 virus is not sufficient to be considered a ‘danger to national security’. For countries which have not ratified the Refugee Convention, they may also be under an obligation against refoulement under other conventions such as Article 3 of the 1984 Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment or Article 6 and 7 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Thus, while COVID-19 was an unprecedented situation, countries should navigate it with respect to their obligations under international law.
[1] World Health Organisation, ‘Listings of WHO’s Response to COVID-19’ (World Health Organisation, 29 June 2020) https://www.who.int/news/item/29-06-2020-covidtimeline Accessed on 23 November 2021
[2] UNHCR, ‘Beware long-term damage to human rights and refugee rights from the coronavirus pandemic: UNHCR’ (UNHCR, 22 April 2020) https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/press/2020/4/5ea035ba4/beware-long-term-damage-human-rights-refugee-rights-coronavirus-pandemic.html Accessed on 23 November 2021
[3] JustSecurity, ‘COVID-19 and International Law: Refugee Law – The Principle of Non-Refoulement’ (JustSecurity, 30 November 2020) https://www.justsecurity.org/73593/covid-19-and-international-law-refugee-law-the-principle-of-non-refoulement/ Accessed on 23 November 2021.
