Professor Elspeth Guild is a law expert and a PROTECT partner. In this podcast, she explains how states are breaking their commitments to the UN Refugee Convention and the principle of non-refoulment, stating that ‘no one shall be sent back to a state where he or she is at risk of persecution’, by refusing refugees and asylum seekers at their borders as a response to the Corona pandemic. Guild also raises the issue of housing refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in reception centers as the Corona pandemic upholds the worldwide lockdown: With asylum processing at a standstill and returns to countries of origin on hold, the detention of these individuals risks becoming arbitrary, if not inhumane, Guild claims.
Professor Guild has written several blog posts about the international community’s handling of refugees and migrants during the Corona pandemic on the PROTECT blog.