Book description

Resettlement as Protection focuses on one of the so-called “durable solutions to the problem of refugees” that UNHCR has been charged to pursue: resettlement. Resettlement consists of the transfer of refugees from their country of asylum to another state in case of severe protection problems in the country of asylum. States are not obliged to offer resettlement places, and in practice that means that resettlement is run as a discretionary immigration scheme. This book attempts to integrate resettlement in international refugee law.

Key to the analysis is understanding what the need for resettlement means: in essence a second country of asylum. The integration of resettlement in international refugee law does not mean an end to the discretion states have; but once the decision has been taken to process UNHCR resettlement referrals, discretion gives way to the applicability of international (refugee) law. Since it is not included in the main refugee treaties, resettlement has so far never been considered in terms of international refugee law with detrimental consequences for the refugees concerned. This book demonstrates that treating resettlement as an outlier is not only out of sync with the international rule of law, but moreover legally untenable.

Speakers

Marjoleine Zieck

Marjoleine Zieck works at the Amsterdam Law School as Professor of International Refugee Law at the University of Amsterdam. Her current research focuses on resettlement of refugees. She is also Professor of Public International Law at the Pakistan College of Law, Lahore, Pakistan.

Salvo Nicolosi

Salvo Nicolosi is a Senior Assistant Professor in European and International Law at Utrecht University Law School. He leads the Building block on Citizenship and Migration within the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE). Salvo is also a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and a Member of the Steering Committee of the Utrecht Focus Area on Migration and Societal Change. 

Tom de Boer

Tom de Boer specializes in international law and liability for human rights violations. It is his conviction that the law should protect the individual and not the establishment. He has particular affinity with civil procedures that touch upon refugee law (including unlawful expulsion, refoulement) and criminal law (extradition, transfer of sentence). 

Maarten den Heijer

Maarten den Heijer is a State Councillor in the Administrative Jurisdiction Division, since September 2023. Part-time, he is also Associate Professor of International Law at the Amsterdam Law School and researches the interrelationship of national, European and international migration law.