What gives us the right to deport people? – News and views for Saturday 30 November

News and views noted along the way.
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  • What gives us a right to deport people? Joseph Carens on the ethics of immigration “In the wake of the Holocaust, most people in democratic states felt a profound shame about the fact that their countries had refused to respond to the needs of Jews fleeing the Nazis. We all recognized that failure and vowed, “Never again,” and so we set up the Geneva Convention refugee system. And now all the rich states have set up systems to prevent people from accessing that system. You have to get a visa if you are coming to a rich state from a poor one, and if they think you will ask for asylum, they won’t give you a visa. The boats and planes asylum-seekers come on are subject to tremendous sanctions if they transport people without the right documents. So, we’re excluding people. And some of the people who are denied visas are in fact eligible for asylum. They are clearly refugees. It’s an indiscriminate exclusionary system. In taking this approach, we have put the burden of taking care of refugees onto the neighboring states. Those are generally poor countries, as in the case of Jordan taking in Syrian refugees. That’s just unfair, and it’s a deep problem. I don’t see a political solution to it, because there’s not much interest in doing anything about it.”
  • JD Salinger stories leaked online
  • Why did Pope Benedict XVI resign?
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