Brazil’s granting of humanitarian visas began in 2012 in favour of Haitians after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010, and was extended in 2013 to benefit people affected by the conflict in Syria. The general national legislation on…
Innovation and technology are increasingly recognised as important elements in the humanitarian system. However, innovation and use of technology by displaced people themselves also happen alongside the traditional actors operating in the humanitarian system. Mobile technologies, in particular, are central…
The midwife assumes a variety of roles – advocate, adviser, confidante, decision maker, custodian, teacher and coordinator of care. As cultural diversity intensifies, the need for specialised knowledge in performing these roles increases; specifically, midwives need to be skilled in…
We are very grateful to the approximately 550 individuals who took the time to respond to our recent Reader Survey. One of our purposes was to find out whether we are getting FMR out there as effectively as we…
We have long known that people’s social connections and networks often facilitate their migrations in some way – through financing the upfront costs or receiving people upon arrival, for example. But these same networks also have a role to play…
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…