The legal protection of refugee: Western Balkanas

• Author: Elena Andreevska
• Position: Professor, PhD, Faculty of Public Administration and Political Science, SEE-University, Tetovo (e-mail:e.andreevska@seeu.edu.mk).
• Pages: 85-99

LESIJ NO. XXIII, VOL. 2/2016

THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF REFUGEE: WESTERN BALKANAS

Elena ANDREEVSKA

Abstract

States have been granting protection to individuals and groups fleeing persecution for centuries;

however, the modern refugee regime is largely the product of the second half of the twentieth century.

Like international human rights law, modern refugee law has its origins in the aftermath of World War

II as well as the refugee crises of the interwar years that preceded it.

The refugee in interna tional law occupies a la rge space cha racterized, on the one ha nd, by the

principle of State sovereignty and, on the other hand, b y competing humanitar ian principles der iving

from general internationa l la w and from treaty. The study of refugee pr otections invites a look not only

at States’ obligations with regard to admission and treatment after entry, but also at the potential

responsibility in internationa l law of the State whose conduct or omissions cause an outflow. The

community of nations is r esponsible in a genera l sense for finding solutions and in providing

internationa l protection to refugee. This special mandate was entrusted to UNHCR.

At the start of the 21st century, protecting refugees means maintaining solidarity with the world’s

most threatened, while finding answers to the challenges confronting the international system that was

created to do just tha t.

The aim of this article is to describe the foundations and the framework of international r efugee

law, to define refugees and protection of refugees; as well as to provides a brief analysis of the changing

migration and a sylum dynamics in the region a nd outlines some of the main cha llenges arising in this

context..

Keywords: Legal Pro tections; Refugee; Freedom of Movement; Western Balkan; Managing

Borders.

Introduction

Theătermă“refugee”ăisăaătermăofăart,ăthată

is, a term with a content verifiable according

to principle of general international law. In

ordinary usage, it has a broad er, looser

meaning, signifying someone in flight, who

seeks to escape conditions or personal

circumstances found to be intolerable. The

destination is not relevant; the flight i s to

freedom, to safety.

1

Implicit in the ordinary

 Professor, PhD, Faculty of Public Administration and Political Science, SEE-University, Tetovo (e-

mail:e.andreevska@seeu.edu.mk).

1

The reasons for flight may be many; flight from oppression, from a th reat to life or liberty, from prosecution,

from deprivation, flight from war or civil conflict, from natural disasters, flood, food crisis.

meaningă ofă theă wordă “refugee”ă lies an

assumption that the person concerned is

worthy of bei ng, and ought to be, assisted ,

and, if necessary, protected from the causes

and consequences of flight.

Refugees have existed as lo ng as

history, but an awareness of the

responsibility of the international

community to provide protection and find

solutions for refugees dates only from the

time of the League of Nations and the

election of Fridtjof Nansen as the first High