A/HRC/47/30 seeking asylum after entering Canada from the United States at land ports of entry are deemed ineligible to have their claims referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board, and are returned to the United States.62 Civil society organizations have repeatedly challenged the agreement at court due to arbitrary detention and refoulement concerns. In July 2020, the Federal Court of Canada released a non-final decision striking down the Safe Third Country Agreement for the second time. 66. Under a 1996 bilateral agreement on “informal readmissions” with Slovenia, Italian authorities have allegedly been engaging in pushing back migrants apprehended within 10 kilometres of the border. Such returns have presumably been carried out outside of formal obligations under European Union and international law, and have led to chain refoulement to Bosnia and Herzegovina via Slovenia and Croatia.63 In a recent judgment, a court in Rome found that the Italian border police violated the rights of a migrant pushed back from the city of Trieste to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2020, leading to him living in destitution. The court ruled that “informal readmissions” were in violation of the Italian Constitution and the obligations of Italy under regional and international human rights treaties. 64 Similar legal challenges have been brought in Slovenia to stop this practice, which has reportedly resulted in the informal return of thousands of migrants65 in coordinated police actions.66 3. Extraterritorial processing 67. States increasingly externalize border governance measures, including by physically keeping arriving migrants, including registered asylum seekers, away from State territory. Externalization may entail delegating migration-related border governance and “entry” procedures to cooperating States, resulting in “pullbacks”, which prevent migrants from exercising their rights to leave any country or territory, not to be detained arbitrarily, to seek and enjoy asylum, and to have individual rights and duties determined in a due process proceeding. 67 Once migrants are held in extraterritorial processing centres, accessing guarantees to an individualized procedure and judicial remedy, even if these exist in law, becomes difficult. 68. Under its “Operation Sovereign Borders”, Australia prohibits any irregular maritime arrival and processes asylum seekers arriving by sea in offshore detention facilities. 68 Since 2013, approximately 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers have been forcibly transferred by Australia to so-called “offshore processing” facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, in circumstances and conditions that have had severe impacts on health, and particularly significantly the mental health, of asylum seekers. 69 69. In the United States, the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, introduced in 2018, require asylum seekers seeking entry to the 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 12 persons with cases “in the public interest”, for example death penalty cases. The principle of nonrefoulement is codified in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Canadian cooperation with the United States is based on a “principle” that individuals “must claim asylum in the first safe country that they enter”. Submission by Amnesty International. See the submissions by the Danish Refugee Council and UNICEF. Submission by the Danish Refugee Council. Submission by Amnesty International. An agreement between Slovenia and Croatia on the “readmission of persons whose entry or residence is illegal” is the legal basis for such “onward returns” from Slovenia to Croatia. The legality of returns without a return decision is currently being challenged at court. See the submission by the Human Rights Ombudsman of Slovenia. A/HRC/37/50, paras. 54–57. A/HRC/35/25/Add.3, para. 10. See the joint statement by special procedures, available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24709&LangID=E; and “UNHCR appeals to Australia to act and save lives at immediate risk”, 23 October 2018, available at www.unhcr.org/news/press/2018/10/5bcda38b7/unhcr-appeals-australia-act-save-lives-immediaterisk.html.