US seeks UN backing to curb global asylum rights

The US President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to push for limiting global asylum rights in a new proposal at the United Nations (UN) later this month.

As reported by Reuters, the State Department is developing plans for an event on the side lines of the UN’s General Assembly meeting, where the proposal will be presented to restructure the global approach to asylum rights and immigration laws making it aligned with Trump’s restrictive policies.

According to internal documents, asylum seekers would not be given liberty to choose the country for their living. Instead, they would be required to claim protection in the first country they enter.

Moreover, the asylum would be granted on a temporary basis and the host country can return the people when the conditions in the home country would improve, marking a major shift in the global asylum policy.

According to the proposed framework, “The asylum is routinely abused to enable economic migration”, thereby urging for reforming the global immigration approach.

Mark Hetfield, the president of the refugee resettlement group HIAS issued a statement while defending the existing asylum framework, “Right now, people are fleeing for their lives on the basis of race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion, they have the right to protection. If it were to change, we'd be back to the situation we were in during the Holocaust."

The proposal, if approved , will bring a paradigm shift in the post-World War Two framework around humanitarian protection.