(Non-) refoulement, expulsion & repatriation

Refoulement or forced return is when a State adopts measures, at its border, that prohibit and actively prevent a foreign person who is not already a legal resident of its territory from entering its national territory.

The principle of non-refoulement -as set forth in a wide variety of international and regional conventions- guarentees an individual’s right not to be sent back by force toward a source of danger. Under asylum law, refugees are provided with the right to flee from persecution in their country and may not be returned to a State where they have well established fears for persecution.
The principle:

1. Establishes that an individual who enters the territory of another, even illegally, has the right to submit a request for asylum and have his/her case heard.
2. Even if the request for asylum is denied, authorities are still prohibited from returning an asylum seekers to a territory where his/her life or liberty are threatened.

No Contracting State shall expel or return (“ refouler ”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
The benefit of the present provision may not, however, be claimed by a refugee whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding as a danger to the security of the country in which he is, or who, having been convicted by a final judgment of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community of that country. Art. 33 Refugee Convention

Expulsion is a measure by which the authorities of a State forbid an individual present on its territory to continue his or her stay there and proceed to escort the individual back to the border, or send him or her back to the State of origin. In order to ensure the protection of refugees and avoid endangering them by sending them back to a country where their life is threatened, the Refugee Convention and other international texts establish guarantees with regard to the prohibition of the expulsion or refoulement of refugees.

Repatriation of refugees can take place under precise conditions such as: voluntary return and in case there is no longer well-founded fear of persecution.