Evaluations of the extent and efficacy of Organization of African Unity (OAU) and African Union (AU) engagement with refugee protection seem to depend on who stands in judgment. Not surprisingly, the impression given by officials is one of a highly engaged and effective organisation.
Topic: UNHCR, IOM, NGOs
Tokens or Stakeholders in Global Migration Governance?
Focussing on the inclusion of those primarily affected as stakeholders (refugees and other migrants), this article addresses a key ambition of the compacts themselves. We employ an ‘inside‐outside’ perspective and firstly ask: which groups participated in the consultative processes, what agenda did they set ‘inside’[…]
IOM in Djibouti
This article analyses the activities of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, and especially its capacity-building activities in the field of migration management. It ethnographically documents how these projects transform state sovereignty. It argues that this is done not only through the Djiboutian[…]
Die zentrale Mittelmeerroute
Von der Seenotrettung zu Fluchtabwehr (2013 – 2016) 153.842 Menschen erreichten im Verlauf des Jahres 2015 über das Mittelmeer Italien, und bis Ende Juli 2016 kamen weitere 79.851. Da hatte der Sommer – wegen der oft ruhigen See die für Flüchtlinge und Migranten die[…]
Balkan Region Report –October 2020
In October, the Border Violence Monitoring Network published 40 reports of pushbacks and police violence at European Union borders. These cases, which relate the experience of 1003 people-on-the-move, are a testament to the brutal border systems in place at internal and external EU borders. Respondents[…]
UNHCR’s evolving perspective on refugee protection and international migration
Until the 1990s, UNHCR rarely made any reference to the issue of international migration in its policy documents and public statements. Indeed, the organization made a determined effort to separate the issue of refugee protection from that of international migration, so as to underline the[…]
Internally displaced people in Mali’s capital city: When a crisis turns chronic
As world attention focuses on Central Mali’s conflict hot spots, more than 50,000 of the country’s 311,193 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have fled to Mali’s southern cities, including the capital Bamako. The inhuman conditions in the informal IDP camps manifest an overall failure to protect civilians[…]
Border Deaths
This book is an outcome of the conference, Border deaths and migration policies: state and non-state approaches, that took place at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on 14-15 June 2018. All chapters in this volume introduce a multiplicity of actors who are engaged, in one way[…]
European Union-externalisation of migration management in Tunisia and Egypt
This paper sheds light on the role of non-governmental/civil society organisations, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in the externalisation of migration management in Tunisia and Egypt. These organisations are involved in migration-related activities, which, from the externalisation perspective, should prevent[…]