Asylum and Protection Mercenarism: Effects of European Externalisation on African Migration Governance
Since the so-called immigration crisis in Europe in 2015, a number of attempts have been made to stem the flow of irregular migrants into Europe. This has triggered some hazy and populist ‘innovative’ externalisation policies focused on outsourcing asylum processing and hosting responsibilities to mostly impoverished or opportunistic third countries for a fee. We characterise this practice as ‘asylum and protection mercenarism’. We assess the impact of such ephemeral yet devastating policies on continental attempts at a rights-based approach to migration governance in Africa. We conclude that externalising asylum responsibilities by turning third countries into asylum and protection mercenaries directly impacts negatively on the global rules-based system.
