Abstract
There is an inherent conflict between the rights of refugees and the sovereignty of states. The South Asian nations, with the exception of Afghanistan, have slammed the doors to the Refugee Convention and Protocol owing to their high level of political realism. Nevertheless, their temporary remedy, which was enacted by domestic law, was never sufficient. It is impossible for domestic measures to provide complete safety to refugees; on the other hand, the criticism leveled at governments is never ending. In light of the fact that South Asia is a region that is supportive of refugees, the ratification of the Convention will result in an influx of refugees. In light of this predicament, the purpose of this study is to examine, from the perspective of South Asians, the intrinsic tension that exists between the rights of refugees and the sovereignty of states. This piece of writing is a reflection of qualitative research gathered. The implementation of regional procedures is an immediate need in order to address the refugee problem.
Keywords: Refugee, conflict, sovereignty, protection, rights. South Asia.
1.0 Introduction
Refugee crisis is one of the major problems in this current world. This crisis is the fruit of state discrimination against certain persons who flee from their habitual resident. Every state wants to protect their sovereignty and integrity of its land. However, the refugee crisis was initially termed as a temporary problem where the international community took only an ad hoc basis synthetic approach in Russia and Germany (Goodwin,1996). Nonetheless, after the second world war the international community realized the necessity of a different stance in viewing the refugee crisis, as it became a perpetual crisis. Refugee convention was made in 1951 and the refugee protocol was published in 1967. But it is a matter of great sorrow that, even after all these years of refugee convention, protocol and a dedicated body i.e. UNHCR to resolve the refugee problem, limited steps can be taken due to protectionist state sovereignty. This paper analyzes the inherent conflict of refugee rights and protectionist state sovereignty upon realization of refugee rights. This paper specially focuses on south Asian development of refugee law jurisprudence (Amitav et al.1997).