Post-return Monitoring of Persons in Need of International Protection - Legal Boundaries and Impact on Migration Policy in Serbia and the Region

Čučković, Bojana and Vučić, Mihajlo (2024) Post-return Monitoring of Persons in Need of International Protection - Legal Boundaries and Impact on Migration Policy in Serbia and the Region. Balkan Social Science Review, 24 (24). pp. 205-231. ISSN 1857-8799

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Abstract

The expanding numbers of returned persons in need of international protection have led the UN Committee against Torture to indicate obligations of post-return monitoring for sending states. In its general practice and a well-known infamous case against the Republic of Serbia, the Committee gradually, yet inconsistently, put forward the contents of this obligation. The article explores several intriguing legal and policy questions that this decision raises since it essentially binds Serbia to act outside of its jurisdiction to monitor the rejected asylum seeker’s wellbeing upon return to the country of origin. It questions migration policy implications of such an obligation for the states involved, with repercussions also for other states in the region that lay on the current migratory routes. Through an analysis of current state practice, the authors inquire into the potentials of post-return monitoring to outweigh its presumable role of a rather weak redress and to instead serve as a valuable tool for non-refoulement prevention used to the benefit of larger numbers of persons seeking international protection.

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