Description
Some of the largest refugee movements have occurred in those parts of the world which are neither part of the international refugee law regime, nor have a domestic refugee law framework. Thus, while these refugee phenomena are frequently discussed in non-legal disciplines e.g. sociology, anthropology, international relations, there is a dearth of scholarship from a legal perspective. The presumption appears to be that a) states without refugee law lack any legal framework for the protection of refugees and; b) that these states have little to teach us about asylum practice from a legal perspective. While neither of these presumptions are true, an absence of clearly defined legislation or case law around refugees creates a necessity for empirical work to illuminate asylum practices in these countries. At the same time, due to the ambiguous status of refugees in non-refugee law states, such research presents some specific practical and ethical challenges. This paper will reflect on these based on such research carried out on Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
