Does a state's right to control borders justify harming refugees?
Abstract
Certain states in the Global North have responded to refugees seeking safety on their territories through harmful practices of border violence, detention, encampment and containment that serve to prevent and deter refugee arrivals. These practices are ostensibly justified through an appeal to a right to control borders. This paper therefore assesses whether these harmful practices can indeed be morally justified by a state’s right to control borders. It analyses whether Christopher Heath Wellman’s account of a state’s right to freedom of association, which represents the most restrictive account of a state’s right to control borders available in the literature, can extend to justify current harmful practices against refugees. If not, then no available justification will be able to do so, and thus contemporary harmful practices used against refugees cannot be justified by a state’s right to control borders.
Citation
Hillier-Smith , B 2023 , ' Does a state's right to control borders justify harming refugees? ' , Moral Philosophy and Politics , vol. Advance Online Publication . https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2022-0036
Publication
Moral Philosophy and Politics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2194-5624Type
Journal article
Collections
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