
The Dangers of "Safe Havens" for Kosovo
Author(s) -
Bill Frelick
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
refuge
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1920-7336
pISSN - 0229-5113
DOI - 10.25071/1920-7336.22022
Subject(s) - harm , political science , refugee , sovereignty , government (linguistics) , law , law and economics , political economy , international trade , business , sociology , politics , philosophy , linguistics
Safe havens have heen suggested as ameans of providing protection and humanitarian assistance inside Kosovo.The track record on safe havens, however, suggests that they might not be as effective as they are touted to be. In fact, safe havens in Northern Iraq, Bosnia, andRwanda lured displaced people into areaswith a false sense of security, withoutactually keeping them from harm's way. Thus, the author concludes that in theabsence of truly neutral safe havens createdwith the consent of all parties to aconflict, so called safe havens represent ahalf-measure that serve to precludewould-be refugees from seeking asylumoutside their country, while holdingthem in areas where the sovereignty of thegovernment seeking to persecute themhas not fundamentally been challenged.