Accessing Asylum in Europe - Extraterritorial Border Controls and Refugee Rights under EU Law

Europe is currently experiencing a "refugee crisis", demonstrated by millions of displaced people unseen since World War II. This book examines the interface between the EU's response to irregular flows, in particular the main extraterritorial border and migration controls taken by the Member States, and the rights asylum seekers acquire from EU law. "Remote control" techniques, such as the imposition of visas, fines on carriers transporting unsatisfactorily documented third-country nationals, and interception at sea are investigated in detail in a bid to assess the impact these measures have on access to asylum in the EU. The book also thoroughly analyses the rights recognised by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to persons in need of international protection, inclusive of the principle of non-refoulement, the right to leave any country including one's own, the right to asylum, and the right to remedies and effective judicial protection. The fundamental focus of the book is the relationship between the aforementioned border and migration controls and the rights of asylum seekers and, most importantly, how these rights (should) limit the scope of such measures and the ways in which they are implemented. The ultimate goal is to conclude whether the current series of extraterritorial mechanisms of pre-entry vetting is compatible in EU law with the EU rights of forced migrants.

1: Introduction: EU Pre-border Controls and Protection Seeker Flows Part I. The EU System of Pre-Border Control and its Implications for Access to International Protection in Europe 2: Chronology and Conceptualisation of 'Integrated Border Management': The 'Embodied Border' Paradigm 3: The Schengen Borders Code: Securitised Admission Criteria as the Centrepiece of 'Integrated Border Management' - Instilling Ambiguity 4: Common Visa Policy: Bordering from Abroad - Applying Admission Criteria before Departure 5: Carrier Sanctions and ILOs : Anticipated Enforcement of Visa Requirements through 'Imperfect Delegation' - Diverting Flows, Entrenching Unsafety 6: Frontex: Joint Maritime Interdiction of Undifferentiated Flows - Operationalising 'Pre-emptive Controls' Part II. The Rights of Protection Seekers under EU Law and their Implications for Pre-Border Controls 7: The Fundamental Rights Acquis: An 'Integrated Approach' to Interpretation - The 'Aggregate Standards' Model 8: EU Non-Refoulement: (The Irrelevance of) Territory and Pre-Border Controls 9: The Right to Asylum: An Individual Entitlement to (Access) International Protection 10: Remedies and Procedural Guarantees (and the Unavoidability of Access to Territory) Conclusions: Taking EU Refugee Rights Seriously