This book challenges the legitimacy of legislation in the member states of the EU - and particularly stringent in the UK - also in Canada and the US, that shifts responsibility for illegal immigrants from border officials to commercial carriers - the airlines and ferries. The Geneva Convention and the New York Protocol affirm the right of any person to leave any country and seek asylum in another. But airtlines have to pay to return their passengers whose documents do not satisfy the immigration authorities at the destination, and also pay punitive fines. The measures adopted by carriers to avoid such costs are often discriminatory, directed at passengers on grounds of their nationality and colour, and passengers can find themselves flown back to a country in which they are in danger. considered to be widespread use of the asylum procedure and could infringe on civil aviation law. Carrier sanctions deny asylum-seekers entry to the country of refuge, from which to submit their applications in safety, and they have led, also, to rapid expansion of illegal human smuggling as a lucrative business. The author examines the overall consequences of imposing fines on carriers and looks at the implications of the Eurotunnel.