An examination of the emergence of the legal regime in the United Kingdom addressing refugees and asylum seekers.

'Modern Legal Studies' is a series of short monographs which aims to make a significant contribution to legal scholarship and curriculum development. This title focuses on UK asylum law and policy.

Britain's adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights has been developed to offer asylum to anybody in the world. In October 2000 the Labour government passed the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the provisions of the Convention into British law. Myles Harris argues that, in order to regain control over its borders, the UK must repeal the Human Rights Act and devise an isolationist, exclusionary immigration policy which includes an internal passport system based on fingerprints, DNA and iris scans; investigations into random asylum claims, followed by prosecution and deportation of those found to be making false claims; fines and imprisonment for those claiming asylum long after arriving in the country; and avoidance of employing immigrants.

Asylum seekers are not welcome in Europe. But why is that the case? For many scholars, the policies have become more restrictive over recent decades because the asylum seekers have changed. This change is often said to be about numbers, methods of travel, and reasons for flight. In short: we are in an age of hypermobility and states cannot cope with such volumes of ‘others’. This book presents an alternative view, drawing on theoretical insights from Third World Approaches to International Law, post- and decolonial studies, and presenting new research on the context of the British Empire. The text highlights the fact that since the early 1990s, for the first time, the majority of asylum seekers originate from countries outside of Europe, countries which until 30-60 years ago were under colonial rule. Policies which address asylum seekers must, the book argues, be understood not only as part of a global hypermobile present, but within the context of colonial histories.

Asylum.

This book critically interrogates the principle of asylum for refugees in UK law and proposes that, when faced with the migration of non-European refugee groups, this principle has often been limited. The book considers the response of the State to the migration of various groups of refugees through five centuries. The reaction of the legal system to the arrival of gypsies and Huguenots from the Gudor period is analysed. The responses to the arrival of African refugees from the American War of Independence is also considered here, along with an examination of the reactions to refugees from the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; various European refugee groups in the mid-Victorian period; Jews from Eastern Europe and later from Nazism; and groups displaced in Europe as a result of the Second World War. Refugees, Race and the Legal Concept of Asylum in Britain also provides a detailed discussion of the backlash against African and Asian refugee groups, in particular, as against the East African Asians, Vietnamese and Tamils from Sri Lanka. An analysis of the major legislative reforms of the 1990s which have been directed against the settlement of Asian and African refugees is also presented. The post-Second World War period is scrutinised in the context of the failure of European human rights law and international norms of refugee protection to secure the principle of asylum, and the implications of the development of a 'Fortress Europe' that is premised on the tight control of non-European migrants are drawn out.