Migration and refugee crises have taxed financial and natural resources of states around the world, causing widespread instability, shortages of scarce natural resources, and deep concerns about the future of many governments.  Many states have taken steps to stall these flows of persons, including closing borders and using third-party states as holding pens for refugees and migrants.  Citizens have also embraced autocratic governments that espouse anti-immigrant rhetoric, changing the future of many European and Middle Eastern countries.  At the core of this issue are states that are unable or unwilling to protect their populations.  In some cases, states have deliberately targeted civilians and natural resources, making it impossible for civilian areas to sustain lives and livelihoods.  In others, mismanagement of resource and poor governance have led to mass migrations as failing states become unable to provide basic resources to their citizens.  The costs of these citizens have fallen upon receiving states who have been tasked with containing and providing for these migrants and refugees.  While the international community and international organizations have provided some assistance, the needs of these millions of people are still unmet.  Additionally, countries are now faced with essentially permanent refugee and migrant camps, unplanned and expansive settlements that appear to be the foundations of new, but isolated, cities.

At their core, States have always been responsible to provide for refugees under international law, providing resources and safety, up to resettlement.  Migrants have often been placed outside of international law’s mandates, with the exception of those who can make a valid asylum claim that stalls deportation and allows non-refoulement to become a barrier on state action.  But that does not change the reality: that states are being overwhelmed by large scale refugee populations and migrations that have rebalanced the populations of the world.  From Bangladesh, to Hungary, to Libya, to Papua New Guinea, to Turkey and to Jordan, the sheer numbers have threatened to overwhelm States and their ability to contain these functionally stateless persons.

This paper will discuss how international law has evolved in the past decade, starting with the existing custom and treaty laws of the 1950s, to provide potential international claims for these receiving states.  The ability of States to seek redress under international law from countries that have caused the crises or allowed them to foment and grow will be determined, using recent international precedents derived from responses to natural disasters, to protection of the environment, to human rights to international criminal law.  Through this investigation, this paper will help define the rights of states who have been tasked with providing new homes for millions, including the responsibilities of other states who have avoided resettlement of refugees.  By defining the mechanism for States to lessen the burden on their finances and their natural resources, this paper will provide a path forward for receiving states that ensures a greater share of stability and economic growth of the coming decades.

Keywords: Migration, Refugees, State Responsibility, Resources, Sovereignty, Water.

Dr. Luke Wilson

Lecturer in Law and International Affairs, The George Washington University
Deputy Director, The Center for Water Security and Cooperation & Professorial

Luke Wilson is co-founder and Deputy Director of the Center for Water Security and Cooperation where he specializes in transboundary water issues and issues of international law including human rights and international criminal law. Professor Wilson has worked with The World Bank, The American Bar Association and the U.S. Government in various capacities, with a focus on law systems, dispute resolution, and enforcement issues. Additionally, Professor Wilson was the co-chair of the American Bar Association’s International Human Rights Committee, leading one of the Association’s largest committees and advancing policy proposals on behalf of the membership, and also served as a law clerk to judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Professor Wilson has been an invited speaker at the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Bar Association, and Bowdoin College, among others, and is a member of international task forces focused on global water affordability and on sanitation policy. Professor Wilson is also a tenor with The Washington Chorus and has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Philip Glass Ensemble.