TNAG-0975-FCO40-1194-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-other--1980 — Page 96

EXE VIVE COMMITTEE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S PROGRAMME

Sub-Committee of the Whole

on International Protection

NOTE ON PROBLEMS OF EXTRADITION AFFECTING REFUGEES ·

(Submitted by the High Commissioner)

Distr. RESTRICTED

EC/SCP/14

27 August 1980 Original: ENGLISH

Introduction

1. In the exercise of its function of international protection, the Office is frequently called upon to concern itself with cases in which the extradition of a refugee is requested. Cases of this kind involve a number of complex questions which will be examined in the following paragraphs.

2. There has traditionally been a close relationship between non-extradition and asylum. It was in the general context of asylum that non-extradition for political offences developed as one of the fundamental principles of extradition law.

Indeed in Europe at one period (i.e., the nineteenth century) asylum was considered to be essentially the refusal of extradition for political offences. The extent to which the principle of non-extradition for political offences is nowadays sufficient to meet the special situation of the refugee will be considered in paragraphs 9 to 11 below.

3. A request for the extradition of a refugee may relate to a person who has been formally recognized as such or to a person who, although not so recognized, may nevertheless fulfil the criteria for refugee status. The last-mentioned situation could arise in countries that have not yet become parties to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention or to the 1967 Protocol, or in countries that still maintain the geographical limitation in respect of their obligations under these instruments. Refugee status may also not have been determined either because the person concerned has not formally applied for refugee status, or because his application for refugee status is still pending.

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by reason of

4. An extradition request may under certain circumstances indicate the facts presented that the person whose extradition is requested is not a bona fide refugee. If the request is made in respect of a serious common crime, it. may also indicate that the person concerned, although otherwise meeting the criteria of the refugee definition, is excluded from refugee status under Article 1 F(b) of the 1951 Convention.

5.

According to Article 1 F(b), the provisions of the Convention shall not apply to any person with respect to whom there are serious reasons for considering that he has committed "a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to his admission to that country as a refugee". While the exact meaning of the term "serious non-political crime" may be the subject of differing views, it is clear that not all extraditable offences are of so serious a character as to involve exclusion from refugee status..

GE.80-2496