On the rights of persecuted persons

When considering what duties are owed to the victims of persecution, the international community tends to focus on a particular subgroup of persecuted individuals: refugees. It is widely agreed that when a bona fide refugee enters a new state and seeks protection, the receiving state has a duty to grant asylum to that individual. What's less agreed upon, however, is what duties, if any, states have to individuals who meet the second condition of refugeehood but not the first; that is, to individuals who are subject to persecution on one of the five listed grounds, but are not outside of their home state. In this paper I will explore what unique duties states have to such individuals, which I will hereafter refer to as persecuted persons. Specifically, I will argue that persecuted persons have a remedial right to migrate to states capable of protecting their basic rights for the same reason that refugees have a right to asylum.