ABSTRACT
At the 32nd Session of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization, held in Montreal from 22 September to 2 October 1998, the Assembly addressed a claim by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), that states faced a genuine dilemma between their rights to protect their borders against passport fraud and other crimes and their obligations to protect rights of asylum seekers who were often unable to produce travel documents. The question arises whether a genuine refugee, fleeing for his life from a country which no longer offers him protection, is always in a position to collect the proper documentation to leave the country. The ITF claimed: ‘It is well established that it is unreasonable to demand that refugees have proper documentation. These carrier liability laws have the effect of obstructing people genuinely at risk from arriving in a safe country and seeking protection as a refugee.’1 ITF claimed that carrier liability laws, imposed by states in order to discourage the carriage by air of spurious claimants for refugee status in their territories, posed serious problems for the carrier who wished to avoid fines imposed by the authorities. One desperate measure cited by ITF as being adopted by carriers to circumvent this difficulty is the requirement imposed by carriers on their check-in staff to make decisions on the legality of passenger documentation.2
