Wealthy Countries Are Backsliding on Asylum Rights

Wealthy Countries Are Backsliding on Asylum Rights
A Border Patrol agent watches as a group of migrants walk across the Rio Grande on their way to turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas, June 15, 2021 (AP photo by Eric Gay).

Last week, the British government introduced a bill that would allow asylum-seekers to be transferred outside the country while their claims are being processed. The measure, which was swiftly criticized by human rights groups, comes on the heels of a similar system being enacted in Denmark last month. On the latest episode of the Trend Lines podcast, Khalid Koser, the executive director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, joined WPR’s Elliot Waldman to discuss the troubling erosion of the right to seek asylum in some of the world’s wealthiest countries, even as the total number of forcibly displaced people rose for the ninth year in a row in 2020.

Listen to the full interview with Khalid Koser here:

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