The concept of asylum (from ἄσυλος, “inviolable"), a place that is recognized as a person’s refuge in the case of necessity, was born of a system of values and religion. This system included the right to immunity for the one seeking refuge, if he or she was being sought by the authorities for some crime; and the right to receive and to protect someone in a place held to be sacred, for it was the special quality of the place which guaranteed that whoever made use of it should remain inviolable. Yet,…