Right of asylum
The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum, is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, such as a second country or another entity which in medieval times could offer sanctuary. This right was recognized by the Ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Hebrews, from whom it was adopted into Western tradition. René Descartes fled to the Netherlands, Voltaire to England, and Thomas Hobbes to France, because each state offered protection to persecuted foreigners. Contemporary right of asylum is founded on the non-binding Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Right of asylum is enshrined by United Nations in the Article 14 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948:The right of asylum is supported by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Before asylum is granted, an asylum seeker may be recognized as a refugee according to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which defines refugee as a person "who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion."
Contemporary political asylum
While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights itself is seen generally as non-binding, the right of asylum as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is referenced in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which most countries are parties of. Currently, in different countries there exist different legal statuses and legal definitions for asylum rights and refugees. Asylum is generally seen as a temporary form of refugee. The discretion due to the commonly encountered uncertainty about the credibility of the claims in the asylum application can be reduced with consistent local rules.When asylum claims are rejected, non-refoulement applies according to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees Article 33, which forbids deporting asylum seekers to any country where "life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" with exceptions due to security and crime. The non-refoulement principle is generally seen as a customary international law.
Different jurisprudence can be used to interpret the right of asylum, including Critical legal studies and Constitutionalism.
Upon cessation of the right of asylum, such as when the condition in the country of origin have changed that there is no longer danger of persecution, voluntary expatriation according to non-refoulement or historically in some cases immediate deportation can follow.
Right of asylum by country
European Union
Asylum in European Union member states formed over a half-century by application of the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 on the Status of Refugees. Common policies appeared in the 1990s in connection with the Schengen Agreement so that asylum seekers unsuccessful in one Member State would not reapply in another. The common policy began with the Dublin Convention in 1990. It continued with the implementation of Eurodac and the Dublin Regulation in 2003, and the October 2009 adoption of two proposals by the European Commission. However, until today, the member states principally stay in charge for granting and organizing asylum. War refugees are protected under the subsidiary protection clause and the Temporary Protection Directive. The European Union received over 1.1 million asylum applications with a rate of granting refugee status or subsidiary protection at 43%.'''France'''
France was the first country to establish a constitutional right to asylum, in Article 120 of the Constitution of 1793, for "foreigners banished from their fatherland for the cause of liberty". This constitution, however, never entered into force. The Preamble of the Constitution of 1946 similarly guaranteed the right of asylum to "anyone persecuted because of his activities in the cause of freedom". The modern French right of asylum is secured by the Preamble of the Constitution of 1958, via a reference to the Preamble of the 1946 Constitution.In addition to the constitutional right to asylum, the modern French right to asylum is enshrined on a legal and regulatory basis in the Code of Entry and Residence of Foreigners and of the Right to Asylum.
France also adheres to international agreements which provide for application modalities for the right of asylum, such as the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the additional 1967 protocol; articles K1 and K2 of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty as well as the 1985 Schengen Agreement, which defined EU immigration policy. Finally, the right of asylum is defined by article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Some of the criteria for which an asylum application can be rejected include: i) Passage via “safe" third country, ii) Safe Country of Origin Safety Threat Fraudulent Application.
The 10 December 2003, law limited political asylum through two main restrictions:
- The notion of "internal asylum": the request may be rejected if the foreigner may benefit from political asylum on a portion of the territory of their home country.
- The OFPRA now makes a list of allegedly "safe countries" which respect political rights and principles of liberty. If the demander of asylum comes from such a country, the request is processed in 15 days, and receives no social assistance protection. They may contest the decision, but this does not suspend any deportation order. The first list, enacted in July 2005, included as "safe countries" Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius Island, India, Senegal, Mongolia, Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Croatia. It reduced in six months by about 80% the number of applicants from these countries. The second list, passed in July 2006, included Tanzania, Madagascar, Niger, Albania and Macedonia.
'''Estonia'''
In September 2022, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced that Estonia would not grant asylum to Russians fleeing war mobilization, saying that "Every citizen is responsible for the actions of their state, and citizens of Russia are no exception. Therefore, we do not give asylum to Russian men who flee their country. They should oppose the war."'''Latvia'''
In April 2023, after an initial denial by an executive body, a Latvian court approved the asylum application of a Russian citizen, who was facing a forced draft into the special military operation. He had previously been harassed by authorities for his support of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and for his public stand against the Russian war against Ukraine.'''Poland'''
In February 2025, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Poland would not implement the EU Asylum and Migration Pact, i.e. the mandatory relocation of 30,000 asylum seekers to Poland or the payment of €600 million, and recalled that Poland had accepted a large number of Ukrainian refugees.In March 2025, Poland suspended the right to apply for asylum at the Belarus-Poland border, with the European Commission supporting Poland's move.
United Kingdom
In the 19th century, the United Kingdom accorded political asylum to various persecuted people, among whom were many members of the socialist movement. With the 1845 attempted bombing of the Greenwich Royal Observatory and the 1911 Siege of Sidney Street in the context of the propaganda of the deed actions, political asylum was restricted.United States
The United States recognizes the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. In accordance with international law, the United States considers asylum candidates on the basis of persecution or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion.Every year, the President of the United States specifies a number of legally defined refugees who are granted refugee status outside the United States to be admitted to the country under. Of these, many are recommended for firm resettlement by the offices of the UNHCR around the world. The annual number of refugees admitted varies from year to year and is determined by a joint collaboration between the incumbent presidential administration and Congress. By contrast, the United States does not enforce any such quota for asylum seekers. Rather, the annual number of asylum grants is dependent upon a combination of how many individuals submit applications and how many individuals are able to successfully prove their asylum claim.
According to US law, individuals are eligible for asylum status based on the following conditions:
- Meet the definition of refugee
- Are already inside the United States
- Are seeking admission at a port of entry
The majority of asylum claims fail or are rejected. Still, since World War II, more refugees have found homes in the United States than any other nation. "Since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980... the United States has admitted more than 3.1 million refugees." During much of the 1990s, the United States accepted over 100,000 refugees per year, though this figure has recently decreased to around 50,000 per year in the first decade of the 21st century, due to greater security concerns. As for asylum seekers, the latest statistics show that 86,400 persons sought sanctuary in the United States in 2001. Before the September 11 attacks in 2001, individual asylum applicants were evaluated in private proceedings by officers of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. In the aftermath of the attacks, the United States established three distinct organizations that each handle a different aspect of US immigration law, including the US Citizenship & Immigration Services, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and Customs & Border Protection. Asylum applications are handled by the USCIS.
Despite this, concerns have been raised with the US asylum and refugee determination processes. A recent empirical analysis by three legal scholars described the US asylum process as a game of refugee roulette; that is to say that the outcome of asylum determinations depends in large part on the personality of the particular adjudicator to whom an application is randomly assigned, rather than on the merits of the case. The very low numbers of Iraqi refugees accepted between 2003 and 2007 exemplifies concerns about the United States' refugee processes. The Foreign Policy Association reported that:
Perhaps the most perplexing component of the Iraq refugee crisis... has been the inability for the US to absorb more Iraqis following the 2003 invasion of the country. To date, the US has granted fewer than 800 Iraqis refugee status, just 133 in 2007. By contrast, the US granted asylum to more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War.Refugee and asylum policy advocates have called for a system based upon the "human interest approach" which seeks to allow asylum applicants be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as opposed to being assessed against other applicants. Under the US asylum structure, applicants' cases are often analyzed based on the strength of their educational/professional qualifications or on the level of danger they face in their country of origin. Amongst the academic community, such an approach is considered to be the narrative of the "gifted or traumatized" refugee. By contrast, the human-interest approach experts advocate for seeks to reframe the application process around the individual and focus on each applicant's unique story and experience.
According to US Department of Justice in 2023 there were 478,885 asylum applications filed, 31,630 asylum applications granted, and 937,611 asylum applications pending. The US Department of Justice shows for 2023 a rate of granting asylum at 14.40%, denial rate at 15.67%, administrative closure at 8.98% and other at 60.95%.