5th EMN Educational Seminar on Migration “Addressing the Needs of Forced Migrants in the 21st Century”, Bratislava, 3 – 5 July 2017

They presented, among other, experiences from the West Africa, Middle East and Afghanistan. The programme included also two public evening events: a film screening of “The Good Lie“ movie about Sudanese refugees resettled to the USA, and a discussion with documentary screening “Refugee camp, my home“ about the dire conditions which refugees face.

Variety of participants attended the seminar, coming from/representing Slovakia and nine other countries. Among more than 60 participants were representatives of state and public administration, state implementing authorities, international organisations, non-profit sector and volunteering initiatives, academia, foreign embassies of both EU and non-EU countries, as well as research institutes and think-tanks.

Presentations, podcasts (audio) and other materials can be downloaded below this article.

DAY 1: Current migratory trends, global forced displacement and regular entry channels for refugees

The seminar was opened by Marzia Rango, Research Officer from IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) in Germany, who dealt with migration data, trends and governance in the global context. She explained current migratory trends, identified issues and gaps in collecting migration data and introduced main migration-related actions at international level including the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

Overview of contemporary displacement and current situation with regard to forced migration was provided by Yolande Ditewig, Senior Regional Policy Officer from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Representation for Central Europe in Hungary. After presenting the latest statistics on forced migration and countries hosting most of the forcibly displaced populations, she specifically zoomed in on the situation of displaced people from Syria, Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Subsequently, protection of migrants´ rights and state sovereignty was discussed by Zuzana Števulová, Director of Human Rights League, non-governmental organisation based in Slovakia. Based on examples she demonstrated how protection of migrants supports or helps the state sovereignty. She then focused on migrants’ rights protection in the EU context, referring to the European Court of Human Rights’s decisions.

Ann-Charlotte Nygård, Programme Manager from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Austria, summarized all existing legal entry channels to the EU for persons in need of international protection. These entry channels can be divided into refugee-related schemes and regular mobility schemes, in which private sponsorships can be an intrinsic element. She also pointed out the benefits and risks of such entry channels, while providing options to mitigate the identified risks.

In addition, Ruben Fierens, Legal Officer from European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) with Secretariat based in Belgium, then analyzed the new EU Resettlement Framework which is a legislative document proposed by the European Commission in July 2016 to govern resettlement in the EU. He identified advantages as well as challenges to address. He also described ECRE’s activities, particularly regarding advocacy at the European level.

Kateřina Wolfová, Policy Coordinator from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs provided EU perspective on dealing with refugee crises in the world and summed up steps that the European Commission took or is planning to propose in this regard. She elaborated more on the resettlement initiatives at European level in the past as well as proposed EU Resettlement Framework.

DAY 2: Vulnerabilities of migrants resulting from the lack of legal pathways or instruments

During the second day of the seminar, Evan Easton-Calabria, researcher from the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, introduced the main streams of their Humanitarian Innovation Project (www.oxhip.org), while focusing on bottom-up innovations, refugee economies and popular myths surrounding them. She described the discrepancies between refugee assistance provided in camps and in urban areas where more than half of refugees live and whose number will continue to rise in the future. Based on examples from Uganda and Kenya, she discussed the challenges in refugee self-reliance assistance and presented several refugee-led organisations and initiatives in this regard.

Current migration patterns and policy challenges in Afghanistan were explained by Mariam Safi, founding Director of the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS) based in Kabul. She summarized migration history in the country during the last 16 years and explained the background of several migration waves since 2005. She then provided basic characteristics of Afghan migrants since 1980’s and listed current push and pull factors which are motivating migration out of and into the country, as well as current migration strategies and policies. She also identified future trends and highlighted the ongoing return migration from Pakistan and Iran.

Afterwards, the lecturers presented different vulnerabilities of migrants which result from the lack of legal pathways or instruments. Richard Danziger, Regional Director of International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Senegal, focused on various challenges which migrants face when they move across diverse African countries including torture and human trafficking. He also explained migratory routes leading migrants of different nationalities through the Sahara desert onto the Mediterranean Sea. He also reiterated challenges which thousands of returning Afghans from Pakistan face, showing importance of having legal channels available in countries anywhere in the world.

Violence against migrants in the form of migrant smuggling and human trafficking were addressed by Eurídice Márquez, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) based in Austria. She explained the difference between the migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings, to which different response is needed even if these two crimes overlap to some extent. Furthermore, she identified the global trends and challenges, and based on Lampedusa case study showed many complexities when it comes to mixed migration flows.

Inge Sturkenboom, Protection Officer from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Bureau for Europe in Belgium and Zahra Albarazi, Senior Researcher from the Dutch Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, provided basic overview of statelessness as a concept, and examples of migration and statelessness nexus (irregular migration, children born abroad, protracted migration, forced migration, detention). They explained how forced displacement can be a cause as well as consequence of statelessness or in other words, how migration can reinforce the risk of statelessness. Inge Sturkenboom also concentrated on ways to prevent statelessness and promoted the “I Belong” campaign to end statelessness which was launched by the UNHCR in 2014.

DAY 3: Resettlement and the role of private sponsorship

The last seminar day began with the lecture by Kilian Kleinschmidt, Founder of Innovation and Planning Agency (IPA), Austria & former director of Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, who shared historical perspective on providing humanitarian assistance and showed why humanitarian assistance should transcend from charity to equality principle. He explained the living conditions in the biggest refugee camps in the world and defined not only challenges, but also opportunities arising from the situations caused by forced displacement.

Other speakers then focused on resettlement and private sponsorship schemes which are among durable solutions for persons forcibly displaced from countries in protracted crises. Resettlement as one of the vital international protection tool was introduced by Sarah Knight, Resettlement Assistant from IOM Geneva Headquarters in Switzerland, who talked about basic resettlement framework, current statistics and several processing stages until the person is actually resettled.

Renald Grégoire, Immigration Counsellor and Programme Manager from the Embassy of Canada in Austria, then analyzed Canada’s two refugee programs: Resettlement from Overseas and In-Canada Asylum System, both offering a path to permanent residence and citizenship. Afterwards, he focused on three program streams within the Canadian refugee resettlement: Government-Assisted Refugees, Privately Sponsored Refugees, and Blended Visa Office-Referred Refugees. He also described Operation Syrian Refugees through which Canada welcomed more than 25,000 Syrian refugees between December 2015 and February 2016. As for the private sponsorship program, he presented good practices and lessons learnt, with practical examples provided.

Apart from the Canada’s Syrian approach, Petra Hueck, Director of International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Europe based in Belgium, described developing innovative models for the protection of refugees in Europe. Among them were humanitarian corridors in Italy and France, private sponsorship programme in the United Kingdom, and extended family reunification programmes in Germany and Ireland. She also presented activities of the European Resettlement Network, a platform to exchange information and know-how on resettlement priorities, processes and practices.

In addition, Vittorio Furci, Consultant from ICF (EMN Service Provider), summarized the outcomes of the EMN Synthesis Report on Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Programmes in Europe. The report was compiled in 2016 based on national contributions of EU Member States and Norway and among others contains the list of challenges to setting up and implementing resettlement programmes and schemes. 

Podcasts (audio) for download

Note: All podcasts (audio) listed below were published based on the approval from the lecturers concerned. The podcasts have the .mp3 format.

Download all (398 MB)

Ann-Charlotte Nygård: Existing legal entry channels to the EU for persons in need of international protection (22 MB)

Eurídice Márquez: Violence against migrants, migrant smuggling and human trafficking (38 MB)

Evan Easton-Calabria: From 'burdens' to 'benefits': the under-explored roles of refugees (39 MB)

Inge Sturkenboom: Forced displacement as a cause and consequence of statelessness (18 MB)

Kilian Kleinschmidt: From charity to equality – aid in the 21^st century (57 MB)

Mariam Safi: Current migration patterns and policy challenges in Afghanistan (30 MB)

Marzia Rango: Migration data, trends and governance in the global context (38 MB)

Petra Hueck: Emerging community based sponsorship programmes in Europe: new partnerships between government and private actors to provide legal access and inclusion (27 MB)

Richard Danziger: Vulnerabilities of migrants resulting from the lack of legal pathways or instruments – Experiences from Afghanistan and the African Continent (40 MB)

Ruben Fierens: Untying the EU resettlement framework (29 MB)

Zuzana Števulová: Protection of migrants' rights and state sovereignty (in Slovak language) (49 MB)

Presentations for download

Note: All presentations listed below were published based on the approval from the lecturers concerned. Kilian Kleinschmidt, Richard Danziger and Kateřina Wolfová did not use ppt. presentations during their lectures.

Download all (26 MB)

Ann-Charlotte Nygård: Existing legal entry channels to the EU for persons in need of international protection (438 kB)

Eurídice Márquez: Violence against migrants, migrant smuggling and human trafficking (3.8 MB)

Evan Easton-Calabria: From 'burdens' to 'benefits': The under-explored roles of refugees (4.8 MB), 

Inge Sturkenboom: Forced displacement as a cause and consequence of statelessness (480 kB)

Mariam Safi: Current migration patterns and policy challenges in Afghanistan (5.3 MB)

Marzia Rango: Migration data, trends and governance in the global context (1.7 MB)

Petra Hueck: Emerging community based sponsorship programmes in Europe: new partnerships between government and private actors to provide legal access and inclusion (3 MB)

Renald Grégoire: Canadian private sponsorship in refugee resettlement: benefits and lessons learned (3 MB)

Ruben Fierens: Untying the EU resettlement framework (1.2 MB)

Sarah Knight: Resettlement – a vital international protection tool (2.3 MB)

Vittorio Furci: Resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes in Europe – outcomes of the EMN Synthesis Report (1.3 MB)

Yolande Ditewig: Overview of Contemporary Displacement and Current Situation with Regard to Forced Migration (350 kB)

Zahra Albarazi: Statelessness and migration (353 kB)

Videos and other materials used in presentations

Note: Videos and other materials listed were used or recommended by the lecturers during their presentations.

Ann-Charlotte Nygård: Existing legal entry channels to the EU for persons in need of international protection

Publication: Legal entry channels to the EU for persons in need of international protection - a toolbox

Evan Easton-Calabria: From 'burdens' to 'benefits': the under-explored roles of refugees