The concept and the legal status of refugee. The United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1951

The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees has adopted the following definition of a refugee (in Article 1.A.2):

Any person who: owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country".

The concept of a refugee was expanded by the Convention's 1967 Protocol and by regional conventions in Africa and Latin America to include persons who had fled war or other violence in their home country. European Union's minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art. 2 (c) of Directive No. 2004/83/EC, essentially reproduces the narrow definition of refugee offered by the UN 1951 Convention; nevertheless, by virtue of articles 2 (e) and 15 of the same Directive, persons who have fled a war-caused generalized violence are, at certain conditions, elegible for a complementary form of protection, called subsidiary protection. The same form of protection is foreseen for people who, without being refugees, are nevertheless exposed, if returned to their countries of origin, to death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatments.

The term refugee is often used to include displaced persons who may fall outside the legal definition in the Convention,^[5] either because they have left their home countries because of war and not because of a fear of persecution, or because they have been forced to migrate within their home countries.^[6] The Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, adopted by the Organization of African Unity in 1969. Accepted the definition of the 1951 Refugee Convention and expanded it to include people who left their countries of origin not only because of persecution but also due to acts of external aggression, occupation, domination by foreign powers or serious disturbances of public order.^[6]

Refugees were defined as a legal group in response to the large numbers of people fleeing Eastern Europe following World War II. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which counted 8,400,000 refugees worldwide at the beginning of 2006. This was the lowest number since 1980.^[7] The major exception is the 4,600,000 Palestinian refugees under the authority of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).^[8] In June 2011 the UNHCR estimated the number of refugees to 15.1 million.^[9] The majority of refugees who leave their country seek asylum in countries neighboring their country of nationality. The "durable solutions" to refugee populations, as defined by UNHCR and governments, are: voluntary repatriation to the country of origin; local integration into the country of asylum; and resettlement to a third country.

87) Fields of Migration Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Law "On Migration" in 1992 and "Rules of stay of foreign citizens in the Republic of Kazakhstan."

RULES of entry and stay of foreign citizens in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as their departure from the Republic of Kazakhstan

 

Conception of migration policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan (further referred as – Conception) constitutes the system of fundamental principles, priorities, mechanisms, tasks and methods of regulation and adjustment of migration processes. Under the regulation of migration processes in the present Conception, the complex of administrative and socio-economic measures, directed towards the stimulation or limitation of the movement of people in the directions, respondent to present and perspective needs of Kazakhstan and providing the realization of migrants’ rights is understood. Migration policy is the constituent part of the foreign and internal policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Migration policy is based on the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, universally recognized principles and norms of the international law, international treaties of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan and other normative-legal acts. Conception considers domestic and foreign experience of regulation of migration processes.

1. Present Rules are elaborated in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On migration of the population”, Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, “On legal state of foreign citizens in the Republic of Kazakhstan” having the force of law of the June 19, 1995, N 2337, and determine the order:

1) entry to the Republic of Kazakhstan and departure from the Republic of Kazakhstan of foreign citizens;

2) registration of the documents on the right of temporary and permanent residence in the Republic of Kazakhstan;

3) movement and transit passage of foreign citizens on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

4) prolongation and curtailment of the period of stay, and also deportation of foreign citizens from the Republic of Kazakhstan.

2. Effect of the present Rules also applies to the persons without citizenship, if otherwise it is not regulated by the legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

3. Receiving organizations and persons, having invited foreign citizens to the Republic of Kazakhstan on private affairs, provide timely explanation to the foreign citizens on their rights and responsibilities, provided by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and present Rules, fulfillment of the established legal norms in relations with foreign citizens, and also take the responsibility established by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on timely registration of the documents on their right to stay in the Republic of Kazakhstan, movement on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and departure from the Republic of Kazakhstan upon the expiry of their fixed term of stay.

Control for the maintenance of the requirements of the present Rules by the foreign citizens, persons without citizenship, as well as by the officials and citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan are carried out by the departments of internal affairs in co-operation with the bodies of national security.