Juridical argumentation in limiting the non-refoulement principle for refugees: A study of immigration policy and Indonesian state sovereignty
Vol 8, Issue 8, 2024
VIEWS - 109 (Abstract) 70 (PDF)
Abstract
Indonesia has experienced problems with refugees in recent years. Despite not being a state party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Indonesia is still subject to the principle of non-refoulement as a norm that binds all states (jus cogens). This principle is regulated in Presidential Regulation Number 125 of 2016 and Regulation of the Director General of Immigration of 2016 as basic regulations for handling refugees. However, the principle of non-refoulement is not applied absolutely to refugees in Indonesia. The government is in a difficult situation and seems hesitant in taking a legal political stance, to accept or expel the presence of refugees. This research article aims to evaluate the application of the principle of non-refoulement in Indonesian national law. The findings of this research show that the state cannot apply the principle of non-refoulement to refugees in an absolute manner as it will have an impact on national security stability. The legal position of the Presidential Regulation and the Regulation of the Director General of Immigration contradict other regulations, potentially leading to norm conflicts and legal uncertainty. This regulation cannot be applied in all situations. Although this regulation is binding, its application is highly dependent on the needs and urgency of the country. The principle of non-refoulement does not apply to refugees if their presence threatens national security or disturbs public order in transit countries, especially for Indonesia, which has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention. Normatively, the application of this principle can be limited by the Constitution, Immigration Law, the theory of state sovereignty, the theory of primordial monism of national law, the principle of selective immigration policy, the principle of immigration essence, and the principle of immigration traffic control. This provision emphasizes that the application of this principle is relative and can be limited based on state sovereignty and national security interests.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adhaniah, N., Heryadi, D., & Sari, D. S. (2021). The Cooperation of UNHCR and Indonesia on Afghan Refugee Handling in Indonesia. Andalas Journal of International Studies, X(1), 51–65. https://doi.org/10.25077/ajis.10.1.51-65.2021
Afriansyah, A. (2019). Indonesia and the global compacts on refugees and migration. International Journal of Refugee Law, 30(4), 684–686. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eey066
Afriansyah, A., Rahmat, H., Putra, A. K., et al. (2022). Asylum Seekers and Refugee Management: (Im)Balance Burden Sharing Case between Indonesia and Australia. Sriwijaya Law Review, 6(1), 70–100. https://doi.org/10.28946/slrev.Vol6.Iss1.1145.pp70-100
Al Imran, H. (2022). Rohingya Boat Refugees at Bay of Bengal and Obligations of the South East Asian States Under Soft Law. Liverpool Law Review. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10991-021-09286-z
Aleshkovski, I. (2016). International Migration and Globalization: Global Trends and Prospects. Journal of Globalization Studies, 7(2), 32–48.
Allain, J. (2001). The jus cogens nature of non-refoulement. International Journal of Refugee Law, 13(4), 533–558. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/13.4.533
Asih, H. A. (2015). Peran International Organization for Migration Dalam Mengatasi Pengungsi Asal Myanmar Di Indonesia Tahun 2010–2013. Global & Policy, 3(1), 1–12.
Bauer, T., & Zimmermann, K. (2018). Causes of international migration: A survey. In: Crossing Borders. Routledge. pp. 111–144.
Briskman, L. R., & Fiske, L. I. (2016). Asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia: Problems and potentials. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8(2), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v8i2.4883
Çelik, Ç., & White, H. (2022). Forced Migration and Protection: Turkey’s Domestic Responses to the Syrian Refugees. European Review, 30(3), 353–373. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798721000028
De Coninck, J. (2023). Effective Remedies for Human Rights Violations in EU CSDP Military Missions: Smoke and Mirrors in Human Rights Adjudication? German Law Journal, 24(2), 342–363. https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2023.19
Dewansyah, B., & Handayani, I. (2018). Reconciling Refugee Protection and Sovereignty in ASEAN Member States Law and Policy Related to Refugee in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS), 12(4), 473–485.
Efendi, J., & Ibrahim, J. (2018). Legal Research Methods: Normative and Empirical. Prenada Media.
Fine, S. (2020). Refugees and the limits of political philosophy. Ethics and Global Politics, 13(1), 6–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/16544951.2020.1735017
Fitzgerald, D. S., & Arar, R. (2018). The Sociology of Refugee Migration. Annual Review of Sociology, 44(1), 387–406. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073117
Gammeltoft-Hansen, T., Hathaway, J. C., & Gammeltoft-Hansen, T. (2015). Non-refoulement in a world of cooperative deterrence. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2479511
Gil-Bazo, M. T. (2015). Refugee protection under international human rights law: From Non-Refoulement to residence and citizenship. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdu021
Goodwin-Gill, G. S. (2011). The right to seek asylum: Interception at sea and the principle of non-refoulement. International Journal of Refugee Law. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eer018
Hilpold, P. (2020). Opening up a new chapter of law-making in international law: The Global Compacts on Migration and for Refugees of 2018. European Law Journal, 26(3–4), 226–244. https://doi.org/10.1111/eulj.12376
Ilcan, S. (2021). The border harms of human displacement: Harsh landscapes and human rights violations. Social Sciences, 10(4), 123. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10040123
Kadarudin, K. (2018). Portraits in Indonesia: International Refugees Face Uncertain Future (A Study of International Refugee Law). Veritas et Justitia, 4(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.25123/vej.2920
Kelsen, H. (2007). The Pure Theory of Law and Analytical Jurisprudence. Harvard Law Review, 55(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.2307/1334739
Khairiah, N., Rahmi, A., & Martinelli, I. (2021). Management of Overseas Refugees in North Sumatra in the Perspective of Human Security. Budapest International Research and Critics Institute (BIRCI-Journal): Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(4), 12077–12089.
Khanna, T. (2020). Addressing COVID-ified maritime migration in the Bay of Bengal: the case of stateless Rohingya boat people. Australian Journal of Maritime and Ocean Affairs, 12(3), 181–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/18366503.2020.1799705
Kim, S. (2017). Non-Refoulement and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: State Sovereignty and Migration Controls at Sea in the European Context. Leiden Journal of International Law, 30(1), 49–70. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0922156516000625
Lang, I. G., & Nagy, B. (2021). External border control techniques in the EU as a challenge to the principle of non-refoulement. European Constitutional Law Review, 17(3), 442–470. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1574019621000249
Legido-Quigley, H., Chuah, F. L. H., & Howard, N. (2020). Southeast Asian health system challenges and responses to the ‘Andaman Sea refugee crisis’: A qualitative study of health-sector perspectives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. PLoS Medicine, 17(11), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003143
Liliansa, D., & Jayadi, A. (2015). Should Indonesia Accede to the 1951 Refugee Convention and Its 1967 Protocol? Indonesia Law Review, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.15742/ilrev.v5n3.161
Long, K. (2013). When refugees stopped being migrants: Movement, labour and humanitarian protection. Migration Studies, 1(1), 4–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mns001
Malmberg, G. (2021). Time and space in international migration. In: International migration, immobility and development. Routledge. pp. 21–48.
Marzuki, P. M. (2015). Legal Research. Jakarta: Kencana Prenada Media Group. https://doi.org/340.072
Mathew, P. (2008). The Rights of Refugees Under International Law. By James C. Hathaway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. li, 1002. Index. $80, £45.00. American Journal of International Law, 102(1), 206–211. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0002930000039944
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2019). Bound to fail: The rise and fall of the liberal international order. International Security, 43(4), 7–50. https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00342
Micinski, N. R., & Lefebvre, C. (2023). The Geopolitics in the Global Compacts: Sovereignty, Emerging Norms, and Hypocrisy in Global Migration Governance. Geopolitics, 29(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2023.2265321
Millican, J., Perkins, C., & Adam-Bradford, A. (2019). Gardening in Displacement: The Benefits of Cultivating in Crisis. Journal of Refugee Studies, 32(3), 351–371. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fey033
Missbach, A. (2017). Accommodating asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia: From immigration detention to containment in “alternatives to detention.” Refuge, 33(2), 32–44. https://doi.org/10.7202/1043061ar
Missbach, A. (2019). Asylum seekers’ and refugees’ decision-making in transit in Indonesia: The need for in-depth and longitudinal research. Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde, 175(4), 419–445. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134379-17504006
Missbach, A., Adiputera, Y., & Prabandari, A. (2018). Is Makassar a “sanctuary city”? Migration governance in Indonesia after the “local turn.” Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 11(2), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0003
Missbach, A., & Stange, G. (2021). Muslim solidarity and the lack of effective protection for Rohingya refugees in Southeast Asia. Social Sciences, 10(5), 166. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050166
Moran, C. F. (2021). Strengthening the principle of non-refoulement. International Journal of Human Rights, 25(6), 1032–1052. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2020.1811690
Mutaqin, Z. Z. (2018). The Rohingya Refugee Crisis and Human Rights: What Should asean Do? Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, 19(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718158-01901001
Palmer, W., & Missbach, A. (2019). Enforcing labour rights of irregular migrants in Indonesia. Third World Quarterly, 40(5), 908–925. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1522586
Peters, M. E. (2019). Immigration and International Law. International Studies Quarterly, 63(2), 281–295. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqy063
Pijnenburg, A. (2023). Migration Deals Seen through the Lens of the ICESCR. International Journal of Refugee Law, 35(2), 151–170. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eead010
Polychroniou, A. (2021). Towards a Critical Reconstruction of Modern Refugee Subjectivity: Overcoming the Threat-Victim Bipolarity with Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben. Open Philosophy, 4(1), 252–268. https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2020-0185
Raz, J. (2006). The Identity of Legal Systems. California Law Review, 59(3), 795. https://doi.org/10.2307/3479604
Rizka, R. A., Prabaningtyas, F., & Prabaningtyas, R. A. R. F. (2019). Indonesia and The International Refugee Crisis: The Politics of Refugee Protection. Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 9(2), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.14203/jissh.v9i2.152
Robb, L. (2022). There was an old lady who swallowed a fly: progressively more troubling amendments to the Australian Migration Act. Australian Journal of Human Rights, 28(2–3), 329–346. https://doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2022.2130682
Ryo, E. (2019). Understanding Immigration Detention: Causes, Conditions, and Consequences. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 15, 97–115. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-101518-042743
Ryo, E., & Peacock, I. (2018). A national study of immigration detention in the United States. Southern California Law Review, 92(1), 1–68.
Shahnaz, S., Nurvianti, F., & Zein, Y. A. (2019). The Political Law of Presidential Regulation on the Handling of Refugees in Indonesia. US-China Law Review, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.17265/1548-6605/2019.02.003
Sari, D. S. (2018). Indonesian Government Policy on Rohingya Refugees. Andalas Journal of International Studies (AJIS), 7(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.25077/ajis.7.1.1-13.2018
Schimmel, N. (2022). Trapped by Sovereignty: The Fate of Internally Displaced Persons and Their Lack of Equal Human Rights Protection under International Law. World Affairs, 185(3), 500–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/00438200221104498
Sumarlan, Y. (2019). Political economy of pragmatic refugee policies in Indonesia as a transit country. Asian Review, 32(3), 63–93. https://doi.org/10.58837/chula.arv.32.3.4
Syahrin, M. A. (2017). The Implementation of Non-Refoulement Principle to the Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Indonesia. Sriwijaya Law Review, 1(2), 168–178. https://doi.org/10.28946/slrev.vol1.iss2.41.pp168-178
Syahrin, M. A. (2018). The Immigration Crime and Policy: Implementation of PPNS Authorities on Investigation. Journal of Indonesian Legal Studies, 3(2), 175–194. https://doi.org/10.15294/jils.v3i02.27512
Syahrin, M. A. (2021). the Principle of Non-Refoulement as Jus Cogens: History, Apllication, and Exception in International Refugee Law. Journal of Indonesian Legal Studies, 6(1), 53–82. https://doi.org/10.15294/jils.v6i1.43350
Tan, N. F. (2016). The Status of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Indonesia. International Journal of Refugee Law, 28(3), 365–383. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eew045
Taylor, S., & Neumann, K. (2021). Australia and the abortive convention on territorial asylum: A case study of a cul de sac in international refugee and human rights law. International Journal of Refugee Law, 32(1), 86–112. https://doi.org/10.1093/IJRL/EEAA006
Tremblay, K. (2005). Academic mobility and immigration. Journal of Studies in International Education, 9(3), 196–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315305277618
Trevisanut, S. (2014). The principle of non-refoulement and the de-territorialization of border control at sea. Leiden Journal of International Law, 27(3), 661–675. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0922156514000259
UNHCR. (2023). Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022. UNHCR Global Data Service. Available online: https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends-report-2023 (accessed on 6 January 2024).
Waslin, M. (2020). The Use of Executive Orders and Proclamations to Create Immigration Policy: Trump in Historical Perspective. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 8(1), 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/2331502420906404
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i8.6423
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2024 Authors
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.