As the first international standards developed for IDPs, the principles were presented to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April 1998 by the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. The 53-member Commission, in a resolution adopted…
Real or simulated dependency and an unavoidable behaviour pattern go hand-in-glove with a prolonged stay in a refugee camp. It is not only obvious in the attitude of those refugees who hang around the administrative complex in a camp, clamouring…
When the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were drafted in the 1990s, there was little consensus over whether they should include the rights of people uprooted by natural disasters. Those opposed argued that only persons fleeing persecution and violence should…
The long drawn-out internal armed conflict in Colombia has uprooted millions of people over the years. The crisis is largely one of internal displacement, with about three million IDPs in Colombia – out of a total population of 42 million.…
In 2008, Europe witnessed a significant increase in the number of migrants and refugees arriving on its Mediterranean shores, a turn-around from previously declining numbers. Some 30,000 people were reported to have reached Italy by the end of October 2008,…
The EU immigration framework is presently based on the idea that there are two types of irregular migrants: persecuted refugees (legal) and economic immigrants (illegal). This presumption informs a policy that aggravates stigmatisation and criminalisation of refugees and migrants alike.…
The need of states to control, count and predict migration flows has never been as strong as it is today. ‘Return’ stands high in the hierarchy of priorities in the current top-down management of international migration, because it has been…
Trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling are only two forms of irregular migration; the term ‘trafficking’ describes movements of persons against their will, whereas ‘smuggling’ refers to voluntary movements of the migrants.[1] Due to the clandestine nature of irregular migration,…
July 2007, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): A woman has been in labour for three days. The child is obstructed; the mother, in unbearable pain, has been trying to reach the main district hospital for the last 48 hours…
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the use of cash grants as a tool for humanitarian assistance and as a component of social protection programmes. After major emergencies such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake,…