Is Preventing Coerced Repatriation Ethical and Possible? The Case of NGO Repatriation of South Sudanese in Israel

Bibliographic Data

ID9954158
AuthorsMollie Gerver (0000-0002-7640-1340, London School of Economics and Political Science UK, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume53
Issue5
Pages148-161
Publication date2013-11-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Migration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7985 • E-ISSN: 1468-2435
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/imig.12140
OpenAlexW2064425390
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited16

“Voluntary repatriation” to a country of origin may be necessary to restore refugees' rights, when only a country of origin will provide rights associated with citizenship. Yet, if refugees are returning because they do not have access to basic rights in a host country, their return is not voluntary according to UNHCR guidelines (1996). There is a tension between facilitating repatriation to restore rights, and ensuring that repatriation is voluntary. This article will first draw on arguments from moral philosophy to suggest an alternative policy to current UNHCR guidelines. Following this normative analysis, the article hypothesizes that, on an empirical level, a repatriation policy that attempts to only facilitate repatriation that is not coerced, out of concern for voluntariness alone, may fail both to prevent coerced returns and to restore right through repatriation. This hypothesis was then tested in the case of South Sudanese repatriation from Israel between 2009‐2012

Citizenship · Development economics · Economics · Human rights · Normative · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Repatriation · Sociology · Voluntariness · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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