The Principle and Practice of Burden Sharing with Africa

Abstract

Burden sharing, in the context of refugees, is the principle through which the diverse costs of granting asylum assumed by the host state are more equitably divided among a greater number of states. In recent years, there has been a perceived lack of global burden sharing, which has been cited by many states, especially in the global South, as a justification for placing limits on the asylum they offer to refugees. Given these restrictions, the fact that the majority of the world’s refugees are in some of the world’s poorest countries, and the growing tendency of Southern host states to identify adequate burden sharing as a precondition for hosting refugees, burden sharing has become one of the most crucial challenges for international refugee protection. This is especially true in the case of Africa.