Island detention and seeking asylum in the Asia-Pacific the entanglement of humanitarianism in state practices of "grey sovereignty"

Drawing on Bhasan Char and Manus Island as case studies, this article makes an argument for the concept of "grey sovereignty, " which is understood as the suspension and/or manipulation of established state norms and obligations in order to contain and punish irregular migrants. The operationalization of grey sovereignty is discussed through three paradigms that can help to understand its purpose and practice: As sites of sovereign decline, violence and trauma, and erasure. I argue that the practice of grey sovereignty is enabled by the entanglement of the humanitarian apparatus and/or discourses in these practices of the state. Further, such practices use dubious means to "shrink asylum" (through temporality, precarity, power inequities) and undermine the ideals of both sovereignty and humanitarianism.