International Protection Laws and Refugees Movements in Africa

Abstract

The legal implication of refugee movements across international borders was laid just after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Although the concern for refugees is humanitarian, protection of refugees is a leap towards jurisprudential narratives because there are legal consequences of admitting refugees for host states. To avoid protection law traps, states would need to identify the status of who they admit under their various national protection policies. This paper investigates the nexus between conventional provisions, refugee movements and peculiars of refugee's protection laws in African states.

Attempts are made to identify areas of convergence between the primary refugee laws and AU treaty governing treatment of refugees in African continent. In this paper, specific issues are raised which relate to the differentials in regional and primary refugee laws and how these affect benefits and states compliance. The main objectives of this paper are to identify conventional contours in refugee's movements in Africa and to suggest how refugee matters can be regulated by law and not resorting to self help by both states and refugee claimants.