Characterising State Effectuated Refugee Outflows as Transboundary Harm

The paper, presented at the Senior Advocate Ozair Farooq Memorial Law Conference in 2018, addresses the unsettled question of whether generating refugee outflows is in itself an internationally wrongful act.

It writes: ‘This paper attempts to avoid this debate altogether by positing that under the principle of transboundary harm States of origin are liable under international law to the host States for causing refugee influx so long as the former is responsible for causing it, regardless of the legality of the causative act or omission.’

On that footing, it argues, ’… the fundamental question is not whether the act of the State of origin is legal, rather, whether that act has caused harm to the host State.’