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Refugees and the Misuse of the Criminal Law

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Causes and Consequences of Migrant Criminalization

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 81))

Abstract

Refugees typically commit offences of irregular entry and stay as a result of their flight from persecution, for example, involving the use of false papers or no papers or deception to enter a country. Despite being protected from penalisation by Article 31(1) of the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are routinely prosecuted in many countries in Europe, Africa and in the United States. This chapter considers the use of the criminal law in criminalising refugees focussing in particular on England and Wales and concludes that it is a misuse of the criminal law. This is because these prosecutions do not conform to principles of criminalisation. Instead, they focus on the refugee being in an irregular situation, which is used to infer that the refugee is a certain type of person who ought to be criminalised. The chapter examines Spena’s ideas relating to Täterstrafrecht, an illiberal authoritarian criminal law model, and relates these ideas to the criminalisation of refugees. The refugee background that ought to result in no prosecution is ignored. One of the causes of the prosecution of refugees lies in this illiberal authoritarian form of criminal law. The consequences for refugees include the lack of protection under Article 31(1) of the Refugee Convention which culminate in conviction, imprisonment, delay to asylum claims and refugee determinations, and entrench a precarious situation where, for example, refugees find it difficult to obtain work, travel to visit relatives or obtain citizenship.

This paper was written while working at Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003, pp. 185–252); R v Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court ex parte A (2001).

  2. 2.

    All refugee cases in this chapter have been anonymised.

  3. 3.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003, p. 252).

  4. 4.

    Ibid., pp. 189–201, 244, 247, 251–252.

  5. 5.

    Costello (2017, pp. 20–27).

  6. 6.

    R v Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court ex parte A (2001), Flynn and Cannon (2011), R v M and others (2013); Case C-148/13 Q, n.d.; Costello (2017, p. 22); Ekathimerini.Com (2016).

  7. 7.

    UNHCR (2006), American Civil Liberties Union and others (2013), Human Rights Watch (2013).

  8. 8.

    H v. Department of Labour, CRI 2006-485-101 (New Zealand High Court) (2007); Hathaway (2005, pp. 370–372), USCRI (2007), Blay (2011, p. 174).

  9. 9.

    Global Detention Project (2015a, p. 7; 2015b, pp. 12, 28–29, 55–56, 70–71, 85–86).

  10. 10.

    Hathaway (2005, pp. 371–372), Al-Dahas v Attorney-General and Others (2007), UNHCR (2013, pp. 8–9), Global Detention Project (2015c, pp. 14–15).

  11. 11.

    Costello (2017, p. 8).

  12. 12.

    Christie (2016).

  13. 13.

    Aliverti (2013).

  14. 14.

    Holiday (2018), Holiday (2019).

  15. 15.

    Ibid.

  16. 16.

    The author worked at the CCRC for 15 years and reviewed the first four cases, which were referred to an appeal court in 2005.

  17. 17.

    Holiday (2018), Holiday (2019).

  18. 18.

    Spena (2014).

  19. 19.

    Cf Günther Jakob’s Feindstrafrecht enemy model. Jakob divides the criminal law into “antithetical (yet complementary) paradigms” of enemy and citizen law, Ohana 2014. This model is not discussed here as it does not altogether fit the prosecution of refugees in the UK. For example, if refugees were “the enemy”, they would not be able to overturn their convictions in appeal courts or apply to a review body. It may however fit prosecution in other countries.

  20. 20.

    UN ECOSOC (1949, pp. 9–16, 24).

  21. 21.

    ‘Statement of van Heuven Goedhart (UNHCR), UN Doc. A/CONF2/SR.35 (1951)’, n.d.

  22. 22.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003, p. 193), Noll (2011, p. 1252), Costello (2017, pp. 10–17).

  23. 23.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003), Noll (2011, pp. 1262–1264).

  24. 24.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003, pp. 189, 195–196), Noll (2011, p. 1262); Costello (2017, pp. 32–33).

  25. 25.

    B010 v Canada (2015), [57].

  26. 26.

    Costello (2017, p. 29).

  27. 27.

    ‘Statement of van Heuven Goedhart (UNHCR), UN Doc. A/CONF2/SR.35 (1951)’, n.d.; Goodwin-Gill (2003, pp. 218–219).

  28. 28.

    Ex parte A (2001), Costello (2017).

  29. 29.

    MSS v Belgium and Greece, n.d.; Global Detention Project (2015d).

  30. 30.

    R v S and D (2012).

  31. 31.

    R v M (2010).

  32. 32.

    R v M and others (2013).

  33. 33.

    R v HHM (2011).

  34. 34.

    R v A (2008).

  35. 35.

    Noll (2011, p. 1257, Footnote 62).

  36. 36.

    The offences relate to document offences, misrepresentation, possession, forgery and identity fraud under IRPA and the Canadian Criminal Code. The emphasis is the author’s.

  37. 37.

    Costello (2017, pp. 27–30).

  38. 38.

    Ex parte A (2001), Goodwin-Gill (2003, p. 217), Costello (2017).

  39. 39.

    Ministry of the Interior v Felicitas LJ (1982).

  40. 40.

    Grahl-Madsen (1997).

  41. 41.

    Ibid.; Gallagher and David (2014, p. 166).

  42. 42.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003, p. 219).

  43. 43.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003).

  44. 44.

    R v H (2008), COPFS (2015).

  45. 45.

    Costello (2017, pp. 30–32).

  46. 46.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003), Hathaway (2005, p. 407).

  47. 47.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003).

  48. 48.

    Holiday (2014), Christie (2016).

  49. 49.

    Goodwin-Gill (2003, p. 187).

  50. 50.

    Ibid., p. 218.

  51. 51.

    Aliverti (2013).

  52. 52.

    Section 31(4)(a) and (b) of the 1999 Act.

  53. 53.

    Section 6 of the 2010 Act.

  54. 54.

    R v H (2015); R v M and V (2016).

  55. 55.

    Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Organized Crime 2241 UNTS 480, n.d.; Gallagher (2017).

  56. 56.

    Mitsilegas (2014, pp. 57–75).

  57. 57.

    R v L, HVN, THN, T v R, The Children’s Commissioner for England and Human Rights Commission (2013).

  58. 58.

    Spena (2014, pp. 635–636).

  59. 59.

    Spena (2014).

  60. 60.

    Ibid., p. 640.

  61. 61.

    Hart (1983, p. 181).

  62. 62.

    Mill (1974, p. 68), Thorburn (2011, p. 85), Duff (2013), Ashworth and Zedner (2014), Farmer (2016, p. 2).

  63. 63.

    Thorburn (2011, pp. 86–96), Duff (2013).

  64. 64.

    Hart (1983, pp. 193–194), Thorburn (2011, p. 90).

  65. 65.

    Thorburn (2011, p. 90).

  66. 66.

    Spena (2015, p. 18).

  67. 67.

    Feinberg (1987).

  68. 68.

    Thorburn (2011, p. 88), Duff (2007, p. 138), Harcourt (1999).

  69. 69.

    Dubber (2001, pp. 838–850).

  70. 70.

    Thorburn (2011, p. 86).

  71. 71.

    Ibid., pp. 87–92.

  72. 72.

    Duff (2013), Thorburn (2011, p. 94).

  73. 73.

    Farmer (2016, pp. 18–19).

  74. 74.

    Ibid., p. 641.

  75. 75.

    Ibid., p. 642.

  76. 76.

    Ibid., p. 636.

  77. 77.

    Ibid., p. 644.

  78. 78.

    Ibid.

  79. 79.

    Ibid.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., pp. 644–645.

  81. 81.

    Ibid., p. 642.

  82. 82.

    McGuire (2011, pp. 161–163).

  83. 83.

    Spena (2014).

  84. 84.

    Ibid., p. 646.

  85. 85.

    Ibid., p. 645.

  86. 86.

    McGuire (2011).

  87. 87.

    Spena (2014, pp. 646–647).

  88. 88.

    Ibid., p. 647.

  89. 89.

    Dubin and Robinson (1962, p. 104).

  90. 90.

    Ibid., pp. 108–111.

  91. 91.

    Spena (2014, p. 640).

  92. 92.

    Ibid., p. 642.

  93. 93.

    Ibid.

  94. 94.

    Dubber (2001).

  95. 95.

    Spena (2014, p. 648).

  96. 96.

    Ibid., p. 636.

  97. 97.

    Guild (2009, p. 15).

  98. 98.

    Ibid., p. 13.

  99. 99.

    Ibid., p. 14.

  100. 100.

    Ibid.

  101. 101.

    Cohen (2011), Guild (2009, p. 13).

  102. 102.

    Although mens rea may theoretically be required for some offences, in practice refugees in the UK appear to plead guilty to these offences.

  103. 103.

    The Telegraph (2015), The Daily Telegraph (2015a, b, c).

  104. 104.

    The Telegraph (2015), The Times (2015).

  105. 105.

    Kilroy (2015).

  106. 106.

    The Times (2015).

  107. 107.

    De Haas et al. (2018, pp. 19, 30), De Haas (2008, pp. 9, 11).

  108. 108.

    The Telegraph (2015).

  109. 109.

    R v L (Sudan) (2014), R v T (Eritrea) (2012).

  110. 110.

    T (Burma) v DPP (2006).

  111. 111.

    R v S and D (Cameroon) (2012).

  112. 112.

    R v A (Somalia) (2008).

  113. 113.

    Spena (2014).

  114. 114.

    Ibid., p. 646.

  115. 115.

    UNHCR (2010).

  116. 116.

    R v M and A (Somalia) (2010).

  117. 117.

    R v S and D (Cameroon) (2012).

  118. 118.

    R v L (Somalia) (reference to the Crown Court by the CCRC) (2015).

  119. 119.

    R v M and others (2013).

  120. 120.

    R v A, A, N and S (Iran and Libya) (2005).

  121. 121.

    Ibid.; R v A (Somalia) (2008).

  122. 122.

    Mitsilegas (2014, p. 74).

  123. 123.

    Thorburn (2011, p. 98).

  124. 124.

    Thorburn (2012, p. 280).

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  1. Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Yewa S. Holiday

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  1. Peace Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Neža Kogovšek Šalamon

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Holiday, Y.S. (2020). Refugees and the Misuse of the Criminal Law. In: Kogovšek Šalamon, N. (eds) Causes and Consequences of Migrant Criminalization. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 81. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43732-9_10

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