Rights and Restrictions: people's capacity to travel

Rights and Restrictions: people's capacity to travel

Have you ever been stopped at an airport, had your passport or visa checked? These are common legal requirements for international travel today however this is giving our governments the power to restrict our travel movements.

The right to free movement is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, officially recorded in over 80 national constitutions and international agreements (O'Byrne, 2001). Restrictions and barriers however have been placed on a person's right to travel throughout the world with justifications that include security threats, migration controls and government regulations (Hosein, 2005). These restrictions in the UK breach several international treaties (Hayter, 2000) however they are publicly accepted because of the justification.

Passports both open and restrict access to travel, limiting movement to these consisted undesirable (Bianchi, 2009). They are a legal requirements for international movement, restricting travel to anyone unable to obtain a passport because in citizenship status, costs, security profiling, etc (O'Byrne, 2001). The passport is also a tool of surveillance and monitoring, discriminating against who can and can't travel, through the holding of a passport. The related fees of getting a passport for many on low-incomes and in developing countries can restrict them from obtaining a passport which has a direct link to illegal immigration. With all these passport restrictions, this has caused a separation in society between the privileged western traveller that can move freely and the undesirable from poorer nations (Bianchi, 2009).

Government regulations and policies cause restrictions to the freedom of movement through travel visa's and immigration control which are common throughout the world (Song, Gartner and Tasci, 2012). The visa is a type of state control, identifying and regulating travel for citizens and foreigners and justified through immigration and security threats (Bianchi, 2009). The immigration controls and policy also puts more restrictions on travel, with countries able to deny access via visa and passport applications. This has been seen went the EU enlarged in 2004, 2007 and placed immigration barriers on new countries and receiving xenophobic treatment from countries like the UK and France (Bianchi, 2009). These restrictions show the contradictions between the accepted leisure travel and the negative associations of immigration (Bianchi, 2009).

The new security agenda, that was a product of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, refined and tightened regulations on international travel (Desforges, Jones and Woods, 2005). This tightening of security included anti-terrorism legislation, state surveillance, profiling, registration, visas and passports, also used as ways to identify security threats and has a consequence restrict travel. The UK and USA anti-terror legislation caused controversy with arguments that they infringed on the civil liberties of their citizens, which includes the right to travel (Hosein, 2005). Profiling is also used as a method of security however with the registration of minority groups, institutional racism has become accepted. The passenger profiling reduced the freedom to travel because of no-fly lists, registration and restrictions on certain countries (Goodrich, 2002). These precautions show the inequality in the right to travel with the security aimed at those considered undesirable or suspicious but the privileged rich can come and go freely (Bianchi, 2009).

The right to travel is considered a human right however it is thought more of as a privilege that governments can give or take from a person (O'Byrne, 2001). The possession of passports and visas, document fees, profiling, registration, anti-terrorism legislation and immigration controls are what the privileged wealthy countries consider normal elements for travel (Desforges, Jones and Woods, 2005). However for the poorer countries they symbolise the travel restrictions and inequalities between the wealthy desirable traveller and the poorer undesirable traveller (Bianchi, 2009). Until all governments feel nationally secure and equal they will continue to control international movement, placing restrictions on everyone entering or exiting their individual countries.

References
Bianchi, R. (2009) Tourism and Citizenship: a critical reflection on rights, freedoms and privileges in a mobile world. Tourism and the International: Conflict, Complicity and Power. 1 (1), p1-42.

Hosein, I. (2005) Transforming travel and border controls: Checkpoints in the Open Society. Government Information Quarterly. 22 (1), p594-625.

O'Byrne, D. (2001) On Passports and Border Control. Annals of Tourism Research. 28 (2), p399-416.

Yes, you are right. The common legal requirements for international travel today give governments the power to restrict our travel movements, although free movement was originally thought as a legal human right and was enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights and many national constitutions and international agreements. But there is no country in the world that does not observe this right just like the United Kingdom. It is also right that these travel restrictions lead to inequalities between travellers of wealthy and poor countries due to different regulations and conditions in every country.

Nevertheless, I think the justification is that in our world today we cannot live and travel without these restrictions and barriers. Of course it would be desirable for everybody to have the opportunity of free travelling to any destination without having to take care of the long and perhaps expensive way of getting a passport or visa or fulfilling other demands, but different political systems, wars, terrorism, human trafficking and many more aspects make it necessary for every government to restrict and control travel movements, and to have a tool like the passport of surveillance and monitoring. Considering for example the rather new type of birth tourism the American and Canadian governments have to think about new regulations concerning women who enter the country only with the intention to bear their baby there and so getting the citizenship for the newborn because unscrupulous organisations take advantage of this human right of free travelling and abuse it in a way that confronts the countries with a difficult situation. I think the main problem is that there are always people who misuse this human right of free movement stated in the Declaration of Human Rights and the countries' constitutions which forces governments to control and regulate free travel through passports, visa and other restrictions or barriers.

Despite all, I think in the age of globalisation it is indispensable for governments to register, regulate and control movements of travelling people national and international, especially with regard to the very important aspect of security. Many people who just want to travel freely accept all these restrictions because of this reason. If governments of poorer nations accommodated the difficult national economic situation for their citizens, there might be a solution to abolish the inequalities between those and wealthy countries.

Schofield produced an interesting paper about the restriction of travel, and set up the agreement of how's the inequality between wealthy and poor countries. There is no doubt of people being through the process of dealing with passport, visa or any other immigration control during before their holiday and it is repulsive, as Schofield mentioned. However, due to the justification of security threats, migration controls and government regulations, people had to obey these regulations, especially is after the terrorist attack 9/11, all the process for entry the country is even stricter.

It is a very good point that Schofield noticed the inequality of wealthy and poor countries. Nevertheless, it would be better with more evidence to support her argument, for instance, case study and statistic number of holders of passport in lower-incomes. It is common in western developed countries with higher percentage of people holding passport, in addition, the visa restriction apply to them seem to be lower than eastern. For instance, citizens in United Kingdom can travel to lots of destinations with visa free entry, according to Mukerjee (2010), United Kingdom ranked at the top of the list with 166 destinations for stay without any visa, other countries which were enjoying similar benefits includes Sweden, Germany, Italy and Finland etc western countries. However, comparing to the country in eastern such as China, it is necessary for citizens apply for a Visa for travelling to different counties, although alongside the development of economy and raising income which lead to other countries lift or reduce the process of visa procedures. Visa applications still existed, with only able to access to 38 countries without visa, and other developing countries, like India, Nepal and Libya were ranked at the bottom of the list (Henley & Partners, 2010). It also believable that citizens in poorer nations had more restrict than wealthy because of illegal immigration prevention, but the restriction to people within the same country could be vary due to their socio-economic status with linked to inequality of poor and wealth's travel mobility.

Overall, travel is suppose a pleasure and leisure activity for people, however, barriers of travel that cause by passport, visa and certain of regulations lead to the difficulties of travel, especially is to poorer nations, which is inequality as Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the right to free movement, but the problem of free movement in poorer nations haven't been concerns and solve until recent. Due to the justification of security, passport and visa procedures cannot be lift for protecting the countries itself. Nevertheless, government might consider simplifying or reducing the complicated procedures and enhance the whole application process. Therefore, it is also important that the government of the nation should consider a support or advisors for those people were willing to go on travel but had the difficulties of go through the process.

Referencing

Mukerjee, M (2010) British citizens top list for visa-free travel. The Telegraph.[Online] Available: www.telegraph.co.uk. [Accessed: 15 May, 2012]

Henley & Partners (2010) Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index Global Ranking 2010. Henley & Partners. [Online] Available: www.henleyglobal .com. [Accessed: 15 May, 2012]

Neumayer, E (2006) Unequal access to foreign spaces: how states use visa restrictions to regulate mobility in the globalized World. Transactions of the British Institute of Geographers. Vol. 31 (1) pp. 72-84