Forced Population Movements as a Current Ethical Dilemma and the Possibilities of Collective Action
C. Akça Ataç
June 15, 2016
Abstract
The spirit of our times has been increasingly determined by refugee crisis and asylum institutions. If onecould read the ongoing economic, political, environmental and demographic crises correctly, a refugeecrisis would not have been treated as unexpected, unfortunate singular coincidence. A comprehensive,non-proscriptive approach with a collective, multilevel engagement must urgently be generated by theinternational community to create an all-encompassing legal consciousness.This paper seeks to delve into the question of the current refugee crisis from an historical point of viewand recount the progress of the International refugee regime. In doing that it will also discuss the possi-bility of the launch of a collective action by the International community in the present. Refugee historyis not progressive; it has not linearly proceeded towards comprehensive solutions. There are ruptures,retreats, changes of attitude -from positive to negative, from negative to inaction. Despite the growingglobal governance with the participation of International and non-governmental organizations, statesare still the major actors in the refugee regime. The dominant role of the states in managing the refugeecrisis creates an ethical dilemma, as is the case in every normative context state is involved. This paper,therefore, will finally assess the ethical dilemma unveiled by the recent EU-Turkey refugee deal.