Briefing: Responsibility-sharing and the right to asylum

This briefing outlines how the UK’s deterrence‑focused asylum policy is harming refugees and undermining international asylum law, and explains why the shared global responsibility for asylum is being wrongly and unfairly neglected.

For some years, the primary focus of UK Government asylum policy has been on trying to deter or prevent people seeking asylum in the UK. Other Governments, particularly in the EU, have adopted a similar focus.

This focus is harming refugees. It is also harming international asylum law.

The right to asylum involves a shared responsibility that falls on all countries. For several decades, however, richer countries have allowed that responsibility to fall more heavily upon poorer, less stable countries.

This briefing shows why that is both wrong in law and in practice.