Transit and Receiving Countries: Refugee Protection Policies in Belgium, Slovenia, Greece, and Turkey

The issue of refugees and asylum seekers has been an important aspect of international migration both for the academic researchers on the field as well as for the policy makers at national and international levels. After the ‘crisis’ in the management of refugees during WWII, international bodies, primarily United Nations, have allocated significant proportions of its attention plus its resources to build up and develop norms of refugee protection as part of the international system of governance. The primary goal of these collective attempts was to lay down the basics for refugee protection in cases of political turmoil, civil or national wars and ethnic conflicts. These attempts were not only the result of the dramatic events experienced in WII but also accompanied the development of human rights regime at the global level since the late years of the 1940s. It is in this context that the Convention Related to the Status of Refugees had been drafted and was released on 28 July 1951. Additional international document in the field is the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees known as the New York Protocol.