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171. Choosing to Return? Prospects for Durable Solutions in Iraq

Author:
Rachel Sider
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Abstract:
In the aftermath of the rapid advance of Daesh through central parts of Iraq, a humanitarian crisis of significant proportion remains. Since March 2015, over 458,000 people have returned to their places of origin. Many have been driven by government guarantees of improved security coupled with a lack of access to land, food and income generating activities in displacement sites. They have returned under precarious conditions, without the support required to ensure progress towards durable solutions, and they rely on assistance to recover and rebuild. Efforts must be made to ensure that returns are safe, dignified and sustainable. This paper outlines the current situation and provides recommendations for the Government of Iraq, UN agencies, donors and NGOs.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Humanitarian Aid, Reconstruction, and Refugees
Political Geography:
Iraq

172. Right to a Future: Empowering refugees from Syria and host governments to face a long-term crisis

Author:
David Andres-Vinas, Daniel Gorevan, Martin Hartberg, Melissa Phillips, and Alexandra Saieh
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Abstract:
With no end to the conflict in Syria in sight, the four million people forced to flee the country have no foreseeable prospect of safe return. And as the impact of the crisis on neighbouring countries grows and aid dries up, the situation for these refugees is becoming increasingly dire. This briefing calls for a new approach by the international community, including Syria’s neighbours; one which offers hope, safety and dignity to the millions of refugees, and gives them a chance to contribute to the societies and economies of their hosts.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Refugees
Political Geography:
Syria

173. James C. Hathaway, Michelle Foster. The Law of Refugee Status

Author:
Rosemary Byrne
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The claims made by migrants seeking protection under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) have created a staggering body of state practice emerging from the interpretation by national courts of what is the earliest universal human rights treaty. The first edition of James Hathaway’s The Law of Refugee Status, alongside Guy Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam’s The Refugee in International Law, is one of the essential texts on every refugee lawyer’s bookshelf. Now in its second edition, co-authored by Hathaway and Michelle Foster, The Law of Refugee Status is likely to maintain its standing.
Topic:
International Law, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, Refugees, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe, United Nations, and Mediterranean

174. Effects of the Syrian Refugees on Turkey

Author:
Oytun Orhan
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
TESEV Foreign Policy Program and ORSAM (Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies) in order to understand the effects of Syrian asylum seekers to Turkey, visited Adana, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Mersin and Kahramanmaraş respectively during four different field study trips in three months. They held series of meetings with municipalities, professional organizations, chambers of trade and industry, civil society organizations, opinion leaders, locals and Syrians. This report has been prepared in the light of the observations and data gained from these field studies.
Topic:
Civil Society, Migration, Refugees, Refugee Crisis, Syrian War, Public Policy, and Services
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Syria

175. The EU and the Refugees: The Way Forward

Author:
Petr Kratochvil and Vit Beneš
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute of International Relations Prague
Abstract:
his paper was prepared for the Prague European Summit. "The refugee crisis can become – in spite of the underlying tragedy – a moment of glory for the European Union. Suffering from crises of both identity and confidence, the EU can find itself again by drawing inspiration from its history and values and renew its purpose at home and abroad. If the EU manages to reform its outdated migration and asylum policies, offering the war refugees a friendly welcome, it will prove that the fears of its weakness are exaggerated and the rumours about its erosion are unfounded. If decisive action is taken by European leaders, the result will be of benefit for both the refugees and the societies as well as economies of the recipient countries. War refugees – and even economic migrants – are not a threat; they are an opportunity for the EU to prove that it still stands firm on the principles of peace, solidarity and openness, on which it had been originally built."
Topic:
Refugees and Refugee Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe

176. Externalizing the Crisis: Buffer Zones Around the EU

Author:
Emma Burström
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Political Trends Center
Abstract:
With the Syrian civil war soon entering its fifth year of armed conflict, the European Union is facing the largest influx of people in its history. Over 710,000 refugees and irregular migrants, of which a majority were Syrians, entered EU territory in the first 3 quarters of 2015 only (FRONTEX, 2015). Despite several informal top-level meetings between the EU member states and a pledge to relocate 160,000 refugees from the two main reception countries Greece and Italy, concrete action has yet to be taken and, as of yet, less than two hundred have been resettled within the EU (European Commission (d), 2015). Attempts to manage the influx of refugees and irregular migrants on a supranational level have been met with resistance from the governments of the member states. As the situation deteriorates and the number of people arriving shows no sign of abating, the member states are desperately looking outside the EU for solutions. Hoping to persuade transit countries to participate in refugee protection, and to contribute to stronger borders, the EU is engaging in various projects and negotiations focusing on its near abroad, with the aim of creating a buffer against the migrants. This policy update will briefly explore the history and implementation of these buffer zones, from the visa restrictions during the Yugoslav wars in the 90’s to the increasing use of ‘safe third countries’ today. Further, the positive and negative aspects of these buffer zones will be examined with the objective of: 1) detecting the possible risks of human rights violations, poverty, and insecurity, that closed border could cause; and 2), highlighting the potential benefits to the refugees and irregular migrants, the host countries, and the refugee sending countries, that could be the result of well-constructed policies.
Topic:
European Union, Refugees, Conflict, and Syrian War
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, and Syria

177. When the Dead of Lampedusa Become Political: Damnatio Memoriae | Quand les morts de Lampedusa entrent en politique : damnatio memoriæ

Author:
Evelyne Ritaine
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
This paper aims to understand how media outlets, political actors and activist groups have come to interpret the dead of the Lampedusa shipwreck on the 3rd of October in 2013. Moreover, it defends the hypothesis that these mediations work around and play with the invisibility/visibility of the dead. Through a genealogy of the various interpretations that were made, this paper shows how the dead were first represented as bodies, to be treated materially and symbolically; secondly, as public policy issues, caught up in political controversies; and finally, as people with fundamental rights, to be respected and remembered.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, Immigrants, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

178. Lesbos, the Island of Barriers. Migration and Containment at the Greece-Turkey Border | Lesbos, l’île aux grillages. Migrations et enfermement à la frontière gréco-turque

Author:
Laurence Pillant and Louise Tassin
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Based on two separate studies in sociology and geography, this article emphasizes the effects of “armour-plating” borders in the European Union through a focus on the confinement measures used on migrants at the Greece-Turkey border. Analysing both the construction and contention of detention centres on Lesbos Island, this paper shows that migration control is situated in a myriad of formal as well as informal sites, therefore going beyond the walls of official centres and sanctioning the immobilization or locking up of migrants. Consequently, this article places official detention centres and spaces created by civil society in a wider continuum. While the latter provide an alternative form of detention, in extending and reproducing logics of confinement, in the end, they too build barriers.
Topic:
Migration, Sociology, Border Control, Refugees, and Geography
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Greece

179. The Normative Terrain of the Global Refugee Regime

Author:
Alexander Betts
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
The global refugee regime encompasses the rules, norms, principles, and decision-making procedures that govern states' responses to refugees. It comprises a set of norms, primarily those entrenched in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which defines who is a refugee and the rights to which such people are entitled. It also comprises an international organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has supervisory responsibility for ensuring that states meet their obligations toward refugees.
Topic:
United Nations, Refugees, Displacement, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus