UNHCR is currently revising the Policy on Refugees in Urban Areas which it introduced in 1997. While this policy represented a step towards protecting the rights of urban refugees, it has been difficult to implement for technical, logistical and political…
Concerns over illegal immigration and the spread of international terrorism have moved the asylum issue up the collective and individual agendas of EU member states. Asylum and illegal immigration have become issues on which governments can fall, extremist parties and…
Elections are an important means by which IDPs can have a say in the political, economic and social decisions affecting their lives. As citizens of the country in which they are uprooted, IDPs are entitled to vote and participate in…
In April 2004 a meeting of the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs ministers adopted the Qualification Directive, a set of minimum standards for the qualification of third country nationals and stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need…
Adoption in 1997 of the Amsterdam Treaty marked a major step towards the establishment of a Common European Asylum System. The first set of legally binding instruments has been agreed. While some progress has been made towards incorporating refugee rights…
The East Timorese who took refuge in Sukabitetek have been lucky. When they arrived five years ago, fleeing the violence in East Timor, the local population welcomed them and the oldest man in the village, Herman Besin, provided land for…
“IOM is playing an increasingly prominent role in the reception, assistance, and return not only of migrants, but also of asylum seekers, refugees and the forcibly displaced. Given that IOM does not have a protection mandate for its work with…
As a result of the crisis in Sudan’s western region of Darfur an estimated 70,000 people have been killed, one and a half million displaced internally and 200,000 forced into refuge in Chad. A massive programme of humanitarian assistance has…
The kinds of participatory ‘hanging out’ techniques Rodgers advocates have played an important part in the development of knowledge about forced migration. Our purpose is not, therefore, to dismiss qualitative or exploratory approaches, or to demand an unmitigated shift away…
Prior to 2003 most displaced Iraqis were forced out of their homes by the policies of successive Iraqi governments which used expulsion as a weapon to punish and subdue recalcitrant populations, secure valuable agricultural land and oil and water resources…