Life arrest : the common European asylum system sustaining a grey area of human rights enjoyment

Abstract

This qualitative empiric research aims to lay the groundwork for determine to what extent the CEAS legal framework ensures the basic conditions required to the tangible enjoyment of human rights by asylum-seekers in the EU member states. In order to fulfil this task, I conducted intensive interviews centred around the perceptions of 29 of asylum-seekers, volunteers and field professionals in regard to the asylum reception conditions provided between 2015 and 2020 in Austria. Anchored on the Constructivist Grounded Theory1 methodology, I systematically mapped, categorized and theorized the data from this interview process, focusing on the multilevel and interrelated effects of these reception conditions on the human rights enjoyment of asylum-seekers. The outcomes of the research revealed that numerous barriers to agency and personal development are imposed to applicants, creating interconnected negative consequences leading to “life arrest” circumstances. During the analysis, several fragilities around the CEAS Reception Directive2, have surfaced to underpin this scenario, confining asylum-seekers in the EU in a grey area of limited access to human rights enjoyment.