Commenting on what has been dubbed the ‘caravan of migrants’ heading towards the United States border from Central America, Dr Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, an expert on migration at the University’s Brussels School of International Studies, says: ‘Their quest for safety is being used to great effect by President Trump, potentially impacting on the US mid-term elections.
‘They have banded together for protection, making their way toward the US from Central America and at this moment trying to cross Mexico’s southern border. Their quest for safety comes just two weeks prior to crucial mid-term elections in the United States.
‘Those elections – already highly contested – will determine whether President Trump’s Republican Party remains in control of both houses of Congress. The caravan, or perhaps President Trump’s spin on it, just might lose the Democrats their chance to take control, much as earlier images of refugees moving toward EU countries strengthened populist leaders across Europe.
‘And indeed, President Trump’s Twitter comment yesterday that “Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country” is pure populism; all three countries are parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees citizens the right to leave their own countries. The right to leave one’s own country is a fundamental human right. Central American countries have no grounds on which to prevent their citizens from leaving.
‘While there is no corresponding right to enter other countries, there is a right to have a claim to asylum examined, regardless of means of entry. Much like Greece, Mexico’s asylum processing infrastructure is woefully inadequate; asylum-seekers thus continue on to the United States.
‘The United States has a robust procedure in place to examine asylum claims; the current practice of turning individuals back at the border without first determining whether they are refugees amounts to a violation of international law.
‘The US has, since 1980, been one of the leading countries of refugee resettlement, accepting those whose refugee status has already been determined, and who come to the US with that legal status, knowing they will be able to remain.
‘US State Department officials agree to UNHCR’s proposition of resettlement cases; in fiscal year 2017, the top five countries were DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Myanmar. Asylum-seekers have, historically, been a rarer occurrence in the United States.
‘This means this recent group of Central American migrants – many of whom are refugees – is a rare sight in a country accustomed to seeing its refugees arrive in an orderly fashion at an airport. It remains to be seen, in the mid-term elections exactly two weeks from today, whether Democrats or President Trump will be more effective in drawing on this jarring image.’
Dr Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels
Dr Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, a US citizen, is Academic Director at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS) where she is a senior lecturer in Migration and Politics and Director of the MA in International Migration.
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