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If Germany wants to abide by its international human rights obligations in the future, it is not enough to let high numbers of asylum seekers enter German territory while at the same time not fully recognizing their right to health.
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
Is There a Right to Have Rights? The Case of the Right of Asylum2008 •
In dialogue with the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt and Seyla Benhabib the author draws on the idea of a right to have rights and raises the question under which political conditions asylum can be a subjective right for political refugees. He argues that mere spontaneous acts of humanitarianism will not suffice to define the institutional commitments of liberal democracies in refugee policy. At the same time, no duty for any particular state to take up refugees can be derived from a right to have rights. The quest for institutional solutions for a timely migration and asylum policy will rather enhance the discourses on the self-understanding of liberal democracies. With a critical eye on German asylum legislation and legal practice, the author contends that it will be a task of any co-ordinated European right of asylum to define political persecution in relation to the first dimension of human rights in order to differentiate the right of asylum from immigration legislation.
2023 •
Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly
Asylum Seekers and the Right to Access Health Care""In recent years, the issue of access to health care by asylum seekers has raised serious questions for government, the courts and the medical profession. Who has the right to medical treatment in the United Kingdom is a political, humanitarian and human rights matter. For the Government - often facing public hostility towards asylum seekers and migrants, fearful of health tourism or “pull factors” to the UK, and confronting burgeoning financial constraints - treatment is often regarded as a concession rather than a right. For the courts, any decision to grant treatment to non-nationals, particularly those with no right to remain, is seen as having has political implications far beyond the needs of the individual. The medical profession, by contrast, prefers in the main to focus on the patient, without regard for immigration status, and is uncomfortable with a dual role. Where the balance should lie is currently being assessed by Government as it considers responses to a Consultation Paper on Review of Access to the NHS by foreign nationals. At this timely point, this article offers a multi-disciplinary approach to the question of access to health care by asylum seekers, by examining not only the legal position but also government policy, its impact on the individual, and, significantly, the ethical and philosophical arguments pro or contra treatment. It is contended that only through this comprehensive analysis can an appropriate legislative approach be adopted at a time when this critical social right is gaining ascendance. Keywords: Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Health Care, NHS, Social Rights ""
The principle of non-discrimination in Article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) holds that its rights are equally applicable to ‘everyone’. Nevertheless, evidence from the national context suggests that access to health care for asylum seekers and undocumented migrants depends on their legal status and in particular, preventive health care is often inaccessible to them. This has led to several hitherto under-investigated questions concerning the right to health in this context: Does a right to preventive health care exist at the international level? If so, what individual rights and State obligations are involved in this right? How does the principle of non-discrimination relate to this right? Does this principle offer (additional) protection to asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in terms of a possible right to preventive health care? Method: The main issue is what the principle of non-discrimination has to offer for the preventive health care of persons without a regular residence status. Based on an analysis of the non-binding, but authoritative, General Comments of the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the paper takes an exploratory style that goes beyond traditional legal analysis and investigates how the law should be interpreted in order to enhance its effectiveness and relevance. Results and Discussion: Strictly speaking, there is no explicit, binding right to preventive health care for asylum seekers or undocumented migrants in the ICESCR itself.2 Nevertheless, implications can be found in the CESCR General Comments Number 14 and 20.3 Particularly, if one takes into account how the law should be interpreted according to CESCR General Comment 14 (CESCR GC 14), there should be a right to preventive health care for asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. The exact content of such a right, however, is less clearly defined. Further, the principle of non-discrimination is not conclusive as to whether the right to health would apply equally to asylum seekers and/or undocumented migrants as it would to nationals. Conclusion: For non-discrimination to be truly unambiguous with regard to the preventive health care of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, it would be necessary to strike out the ‘general welfare’ provision of CESCR General Comment 20 (CESCR GC 20) and to clearly state that the ‘other status’ criterion also entails ‘residence status’. In that sense, the principle of non-discrimination is, indeed, an empty promise and the right to preventive health care for asylum seekers and undocumented migrants seems to be much better protected under the CESCR GC 14’s non-discriminatory interpretation of the right to health itself.
Respond Working Paper Series
Refugee Protection: Germany Country Report2019 •
This report examines the asylum determination systems and refugee protection regimes of Germany from a multilevel governance perspective, taking into consideration the national level as well as the state and municipal one. Additionally it explores the legal framework, as well as its implementation and concrete practices, along with main narratives among public and state actors and the perception and experiences of asylum-seeking migrants from a historical perspective. The report reveals that after a key decisive policy change in 1993, codified in the so-called asylum compromise establishing central features that endure until today, the nextdecisive break was the developments of 2015/2016 – with the massive inflow of nearly 800,000 asylum-seeking migrants to Germany. This new increase in numbers led to a near collapse of the reception and procedural systems that had been cut back over previous years, producing in fact a self-made emergency situation. Our report and the many statements of asylum-seeking migrants, of NGOs and lawyers, all emphasise the need to have a broad civil society sector and volunteers that support asylum applicants through each and every step of their procedure, monitoring the performances of state institutions and filling the gaps where state provisions endanger the rule of law and fundamental rights – as codified in international European and national laws.
The European Journal of Public Health
Access to health care for asylum seekers in the European Union--a comparative study of country policies2006 •
Hastings Centre Report
Asylum, Refuge and Justice in Health2019 •
We are, as of May 2019, witnessing yet another “caravan” of people fleeing violence in Latin America, bonding together to reach the territory of safer states in the North. Similarly, in the fall of 2015, Europe experienced the movement of many refugees fleeing war, persecution, and grave human rights violations in Syria. These new waves of people on the move have raised anew important questions about asylum and refuge: who should be able to claim asylum? Should the fear of persecution be sufficient, or do asylum seekers need to show that they have actually suffered it? And maybe most controversially, how should asylum‐granting states respond to the plight of those asking for asylum on their territory? The moral principles guiding asylum and refuge are different from the rules usually regulating immigration, which are based on the principle of territorial sovereignty that allows nation‐states to discriminate and select among those who hope to immigrate. Asylum and refuge instead call upon nation‐states to provide refugees with a new home, protect human rights, and over time, provide access to the social, political and civic rights that characterize membership. Included in the list of human rights, I will argue, is the provision of the means for individual physical and psychological well‐being.
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
Access to health-care policies for refugees and asylum-seekers2020 •
Purpose The influx of refugees and asylum-seekers over the past decade into the European Union creates challenges to the health systems of receiving countries in the preparedness and requisite adjustments to policy addressing the new needs of the migrant population. This study aims to examine and compare policies for access to health care and the related health outcomes for refugees and asylum-seekers settling both in the UK and Germany as host countries. Design/methodology/approach The paper conducted a scoping review of academic databases and grey literature for studies within the period 2010-2017, seeking to identify evidence from current policies and service provision for refugees and asylum-seekers in Germany and the UK, distilling the best practice and clarifying gaps in knowledge, to determine implications for policy. Findings Analysis reveals that legal entitlements for refugees and asylum-seekers allow access to primary and secondary health care free of charge in the UK ver...
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Access Denied? – Human Rights Approaches to Compensate for the Absence of a Right to Be Granted Asylum2020 •
2012 •
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Social Science Research Network
The Mathematics of Real Estate Appraisal2004 •
With Vandana Prapanna, “India and the Netherlands in the Age of Rembrandt”, Brochure of the exhibition at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Mararaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai 2019.
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