Part III Regional Regimes, Ch.19 Regional Refugee Regimes: Europe

Subject(s):

Asylum — Non-refoulement

This chapter examines refugee protection in Europe, defining Europe based on its two distinct legal regimes, the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE). The EU and its Member States have developed a regional asylum framework, encompassing legislative, responsibility-allocation, and practical components. In parallel, EU border control, visa, and migration measures impact asylum by deflecting protection obligations to non-EU countries. The chapter then analyses the EU’s ambivalent asylum system before turning to the CoE, focusing on both the European Convention on Human Rights and soft law adopted in the CoE framework. EU asylum law has an expansive impact beyond the EU, including in neighbouring non-EU countries. To illustrate these expansive trends, the chapter looks at refugee protection in Turkey and Ukraine.