Interception of refugees at sea and international law : a Rohingya perspective

Abstract

Despite the development of international law, the interception of refugee boats, the turning back of boats to sea and the refusal of disembarkation of refugee boats are common practices around the world. Party states to the Refugee Convention, for instance, Australia and the United States, adopt various laws and policies to deter refugee boats from their coasts, which challenges the refugee protection regime at sea. On the other side, the South East Asian countries, that are the focus of this thesis, are non-party states to the Refugee Convention and there is no particular law and policy for the refugees in the region. Thus, the lack of refugee protection mechanism poses further challenges in South East Asia. The international, regional and domestic legal regime has significantly progressed to provide refugee protection, but the question remains open: is the current legal regime adequate to protect the boat refugees, those who arrive by sea? This thesis explores this question and provides a case study by focusing on the Rohingya boat refugees of South East Asia. This thesis examines the current refugee protection framework for seaborne refugees, and focuses in particular on the principle of non-refoulement and the international law of the sea. It examines how the parties of the Refugee Convention are dealing with the boat refugees, and as a comparative research it also investigates how non-party states to the Convention are dealing with the boat refugees. This thesis evaluates the existing legal protection mechanisms and explores the challenges and gaps in the protection regime for refugees who arrive by boats through sea routes, specially to the non-party states of the 1951 Refugee Convention in South East Asia. By analysing the shortcomings of the protection regime and the opportunities for the boat refugees of South East Asia, this thesis concludes that adoption of a regional framework would be a way of protection for the boat refugees.