After six years of decline in asylum applications Europe now hosts only five per cent of the world’s refugee population. Only a tiny proportion of the world’s 20 million refuges and asylum seekers ever get to Europe. In 2004 the…
In a small drab office with papers piled to the ceiling, an immigration solicitor explains how difficult it is to work under the new system. “It’s impossible,” he says. “If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t go into…
Economically integrated refugees contribute to development of the host country rather than constituting a ‘burden’. They become progressively less reliant on state aid or humanitarian assistance and better able to support themselves. Social and cultural interactions between refugees and local…
The public health rationale for condom use in the refugee setting is compelling, as refugees are particularly vulnerable to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Social dislocation, economic deprivation, increased sexual violence, lack of access to medical services, increased transactional…
In December 2005, I undertook an official mission to the Caucasus republic of Georgia. In addition to Tbilisi, I visited the Samegrelo region and the de facto autonomous regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. I was shocked by the misery…
In August 2005 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka - GAM). The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM)[1] has successfully overseen relocation of Indonesian troops and police and…
In 1989, the Bhutanese government adopted a ‘one nation one people’ policy to impose the dominant Ngalongpa culture, religion and language throughout the country. The Nepali language of the southern Bhutanese Lhotshampas was banned and Nepali books burned. Peaceful demonstrations…
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has extensive experience in this field, having administered 40 education programmes in 20 countries of conflict over the past three years. There has, however, been very little research done to confirm our assumptions about the…
"I came here from a war, and we had to leave or we would have been killed. We came here and school helped me feel confident..." Previous research has suggested that refugee children's experience in schools can make a real…
Unpacking this mouthful of jargon and explaining that the idea would involve intensive research and advocacy designed and conducted by adolescents themselves, we asked young people in Kosovo (2000), northern Uganda (2001) and Sierra Leone (2002) about their interest in…