In brief
During a U.N. General Assembly meeting, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau led discussions with representatives from multiple countries about reforming the global asylum system, claiming it has been exploited by 'fake asylum seekers.' The proposed changes include treating asylum as a temporary status with an emphasis on returning to one's home country. Human rights advocates expressed concerns over what they see as an effort to dismantle essential protections for refugees.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration pitched several other countries Thursday on its view that the global system for seeking asylum, in effect since World War II, has been rampantly abused and urged them to join the United States in cracking down on such migration. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau led the discussion on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly alongside representatives from Kosovo, Bangladesh, Liberia, and Panama. Landau’s gathering allowed American officials to gauge early support and interest for what could be a massive revamp of the asylum system.'If you have hundreds of thousands of fake asylum seekers, then what happens to the real asylum system?' Landau said in his opening remarks. 'Saying the process is susceptible to abuse is not xenophobic; it is not being a mean or bad person.'The U.S. said changes must, at a minimum, embrace asylum as a temporary status and dictate that those seeking protection should eventually return home. The Trump administration also emphasized that there is no right to receive asylum in a country of choice and that decisions are governed by individual nations, not multinational organizations.Human rights groups watched from the sidelines with unease. Bill Frelick, Human Rights Watch’s director of refugee and migrant rights, said the U.S. proposal 'looks like the first step in a bid to tear down the global refugee system.' He faulted the proposal for not embracing a core principle of the current system that people should not be sent to countries where they face persecution.The U.S. has been the top destination for asylum-seekers since 2017, with Germany a distant second, according to 2024 figures from the U.N. refugee agency. President Donald Trump and his allies say people with weak cases have abused the system to gain entry to the United States, obtaining work permits while their cases take years to wind through backlogged immigration courts.The number of people coming to the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum has ballooned in recent years, leading to claims that the system is being abused. Facing criticism over surging migration, the Biden administration has taken steps that severely curtailed asylum access. As discussions continue, advocates worry that the proposed reforms may undermine the protections that many vulnerable populations rely on for safety and security.
