A new asylum law for the KRI and Iraq: Reality or wishful thinking?
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Abdullah Omar Yassen |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13046 |
168
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International Migration. 2023;61:168–183.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
In 2020, UNHCR figures showed that a record of 82.4 million refugees are forcibly displaced in the world (UNHCR ,
Global Trend 2021b), with millio ns being in protr acted refuge e situations (ExCom Conclusion 109 [LXI], 2009,
Received: 6 June 2 020
|
Revised: 24 April 20 22
|
Accepted: 26 June 202 2
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13046
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A new asylum law for the KRI and Iraq: Reality or
wishful thinking?
Abdullah Omar Yassen
© 2022 Internat ional Organizat ion for Migration.
Departm ent of International M arketing and
Languages , Erbil Technical Admin istrative
College, Erbi l Polytechnic Uni versity, Erbil,
Iraq
Correspondence
Abdullah Om ar Yassen, Departm ent of
Internation al Marketing and La nguages,
Erbil Technical A dministrative Co llege, Erbil
Polytechn ic University, Erbil , Iraq
Email: abdullah.yassen@epu.edu.iq
Abstract
Despite having its own internal population displacement
due to conflict and civil war, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region
continue to accomm odate large numbers of refu gees from
Iran, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. Howeve r, Ira q has not rat-
ified the internationally recog nized legal framework for the
protection of refugees. Currently, the protection offere d to
asylum seekers in Iraq is regulated by secondary legislation,
mostly in the form of administrati ve circulars. The lack of an
applicable law regulating the status of asylum seekers has
led to local- level ad hoc policy im plementation. Similarly,
the Kurdis tan Region of Iraq has no legal provisions in it s
domestic legislation to regulate the st atus of refugees. This
study pres ents: (a) the argument that Iraq must adopt leg-
islation to regulate the entry, exit and stay of migran ts, in
line with international protec tion for both asylum seekers
and the provision of adequate right s to refugees, an d in ac-
cordance with international human ri ghts standards; (b) a
proposal for provisions for such legislat ion in Iraq; and (c)
a timely impe tus to re- energize lo cal strateg ies aimed at
filling these normative legal gaps through domestic agr ee-
ments rather th an regional and/or international ones.
|
169
A NEW ASYLUM L AW FOR THE KRI AND IR AQ
preamble para. 3) for an avera ge of 25 years .1 This compar es to 17 years and 9 years in 2003 and 1991 resp ec-
tively. Therefore, fro m the perspective of persons b orn in danger zones, one is more likely to be a refugee in 2019
than in 2014, yet less likely to find a durable solution (UNHCR G lobal Trends, 2018, p. 2). Although this figure is
unprecedente d and increases yearly, the inte rnational community ha s so far failed to find an ade quate response.
International ly, the mass influx of refugees has been variously addressed; some countries have adop ted new
asylum laws (Turkey, Law on Fore igners and Internation al Protection No. 6458, 2013, and Qatar, Political A sylum
Law No. 11, 2018), while other s, such as Germany, have amended laws (Gesle y, 2016) or adopted mor e restrictive
policies (Hun gary, Act CXLIII, 2017). Although the Middle East, in general, has huge refugee problems, it surpris-
ingly lack s laws and pol icies to address them. Indeed , few countries in the region have domestic law s governing
the status of refugees or a commitment to internat ional refuge e law, a nd instead , States have appli ed ad hoc
policies (Janmyr, 2017, p p. 438– 465). In Iraq an d the KRI (Kurdistan Region of I raq), such ad hoc s ystems have
impacted many matters of protect ion, incl uding admi ssion, reco gnition, a ccess to rights and s ervices and the
provision of durable solutions. Although this study explores some of the shortcomings caused by the lack of do-
mestic asylum law for the protection of refugees, it will mainly focus on ga ps in Iraqi legislation. In a forthcoming
co- authored publi cation, we discuss the role of p olitics in detail.
Despite hos ting thousands of ref ugees and internall y displaced persons ( IDPs), Iraq and the KRI al so lack ade-
quate l egislati on to deal wi th this unp receden ted inflow. L ike many nei ghbouri ng and Europ ean count ries, th e KRI
hosts, as of January 2022, more than 1.5 million refugees from Syria, Iran, Turkey and Palestine and IDPs. Syrian
numbers i n the KRI have surged to more than 270,000 , constituting 97 per cent of al l Syrians current ly residing
in Ira q (UNHCR Iraq Factsh eet, 2022). As well as these Syrians, some 40,000 non- Syrian ref ugees and asylum
seekers (Turks, Irania ns and Pa lestinians) have registered with the UNHCR in Iraq and, of these, the KRI hosts
9,000 from Turkey, 14,000 from Ir an and 750 from Palestine (J oint Crisis Coord ination Centre [JCCC] , 2022). In
addition, the KRI hos ts 1.1 m Iraqi IDPs who fled Islamic State (IS) occupied are as, and together with the refugees,
these IDPs compr ise a 28 per cent population increas e in the region. Until recently, one in four pe rsons in the KRI
were refugees or IDPs , a ratio higher than in Lebanon (1 in 6), Jordan (1 in 11) and Turkey (1 in 28). Due to regional
political inst ability and security concerns, this situati on is likely to remain protrac ted, creating a dramatic change in
the KRI's demography an d tremendous challenges for the local integ ration of long- term refugees. In this context,
the argumen t presented in this study is that the lack of domestic law to date ‘has resulted in the perpetuatio n of
an unfavourable prot ection environment for asyl um seekers and refugees in Iraq’ (UNHC R, UPR 2014). Thus, new
refugee law is required to provide a dequate protection for those entering I raqi territory, not o nly to improve the
national asylu m system but also to facilit ate durable solutions .
METHODOLOGY
This stud y primarily em ployed documenta ry, or doctrina l, research, a lso known as ‘black- letter’ law. To evalu ate
legal rules, comprehensive reference was made to international instruments, academic commentary, policy docu-
ments and independent reports (McConville & Chui, 2007, pp. 3_4). The approa ch uses legal reasoning to examine
the national asylum law in Iraq, and whether there is any legal framewo rk applicable to refugees entering Iraq. This
examination is not only confined to the Refugee Convention but also focus es on other treaty obligations, including
the Convent ion Against Torture and Othe r Cruel, Inh uman or Degra ding Treatment or Punishment (Conventi on
Against Torture, 1984), international human rights covenants, t hat is, the In ternational Covenant on Civil and
Political Right s (ICCPR, 1966), and regional human rights instru ments such as the European Convention on Human
Rights (ECHR, 1950), the Americ an Convention on Human Rights (ACHR, 1969), and the African Char ter on Human
and People's Rig hts (ACHPR, 1981). Not on ly do these instruments com plement the international refu gee law re-
gime and provide a wider scope of protec tion for refuge es but they are also evidence of the evoluti on of public
international law in the twentieth century, and have influenced the position of refugees in the international legal
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