When patriotic and populist politicians blame foreign nationals for the ill of their states and gain in popularity for it, states increasingly conclude bilateral or other agreements and arrangements for the readmission of people to their state of origin or habitual residence in order to simplify expulsion of irregular migrants. By design, such agreements can jeopardise the rights of a particularly vulnerable group of people – refugees. In particular, refugees’ access to protection, meaning the protection from refoulement, the right to seek and enjoy asylum and the right to effective remedies before removal, might be endangered. Refugees often travel without identity and travel documents, as do mostly undocumented economic migrants. They therefore run risk of being assimilated with undocumented economic migrants (p. 1). Mariagiulia Giuffré's monograph illustrates the impact of such agreements on the rights of refugees by unpicking readmission agreements from a refugee and human rights perspective. The geographical focus of the work is on Europe, although its scope is not limited to it. The book is largely based on Giuffré's doctoral thesis and is divided into six chapters.

In the introductory chapter, the author clarifies that the research includes all kinds of cooperation agreements linked to the readmission of irregular migrants, such as development aid or visa facilitation agreements – all tools that make readmission more attractive for the requested states (p. 21). Moreover, Giuffré explains key concepts such as the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement and discusses the interrelation between international refugee and human rights law, as well as human rights protection in the context of the European Union (EU, the Union).

Chapter two focuses on the access to protection for refugees, especially in external migration control mechanisms. Giuffré examines several refugee and human rights instruments as well as EU law and concludes that the prohibition of direct and indirect refoulement applies to all EU Member States, including in the extraterritorial context and on the high seas. Regarding the right to asylum, the state of affairs is not abundantly clear in international law, but EU Member States are obliged to grant a right to asylum due to EU primary law (pp. 79, 125). Subsequently, the concept of a safe third country is critically analysed.