REFUGEES IN THE EYES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: A DEFINITIONAL EXPOSITION

Abstract

Refugees are one group of needy people that have found themselves outside their native country or primary country constituting their former place of habitual residence. Their immediate needs are not far from the three basic needs of man namely food, shelter and clothing. At the point of assumption of the refugee status usually they are analogous to a product, whose need for membership will readily be categorized as non exportable. This is so as most of the refugees are unavoidably forced to seek possible homes in countries whose politics and religion are at cross-roads with theirs. The destination countries in question as well; sometimes out of force of sheer moral obligation as originators or architects of the refugee status of the putative refugee(s) in the first place are unwillingly inclined to provide place of refuge. Primarily refugee law focuses on individuals who are outside their country of origin or place of habitual residence and who; as a result of well founded fear of persecution within that country seek refugee status as defined and recognized under international law; complemented by the municipal law and interpreted in judicial authorities. In the context of this paper these categories of persons in the eyes of international law is examined and delineated within international definitional boundaries.