Constructive Refoulement as Disguised Voluntary Return: The Internalised Externalisation of Migrants

Abstract This paper purports to extend the concept of constructive refoulement in the context of externalised migration policies. This concept has been recognised in jurisprudence at the domestic, regional and international levels, and has developed through State practice as well as the practice of regional and international organisations. In the externalisation of migration policies, constructive refoulement becomes evident in both visible and invisible prisons: the United States-Mexico partnership in the Southern Border Programme creates a situation where asylum seekers eventually abandon the hope of continuing their asylum procedures and reluctantly return to other places. The Australian offshore asylum processing system, which has been remodelled by the UK, adopts the kyriarchical system where asylum seekers themselves control their self-return to their country of origin as a result of a combined situation of severe discipline and hatred between officials and inmates as well as between the inmates themselves. Meanwhile, the EU’s Reception Conditions Directive scheme incorporates migrants in a planned destitution scenario where they are forced to choose to leave Europe due to poor socio-economic conditions. The Japanese combination of karihomen and kanrisochi also creates a planned destitute environment which compels asylum seekers themselves to seek their return by depriving them of their basic needs. Such governmentality of internalising externalisation by the Global North must be critically assessed in terms of the developing concept of constructive refoulement implied under international refugee and human rights law.