EU Developments: Asylum, Human Trafficking, Migration Policy

Asylum:

Comments on the European Commission's Green Paper on the Future of the Common European Asylum System (CEAR) have been gathered together and made available online. Replies through 30 September 2007 were received from member governments, other governments, regional authorities, NGOs, and IGOs.

A recent New Issues in Refugee Research paper, entitled "Fortress Europe and the Iraqi ‘intruders’: Iraqi asylum-seekers and the EU, 2003-2007," contends that the influx of Iraqis seeking asylum has presented the EU with a test of their desire to implement a CEAR through the harmonization of their asylum systems. According to the author, the data "show that so far there is little indication of better convergence in national asylum practice or increased sharing of responsibility to accept asylum-seekers among EU states."

Human Trafficking:

The first EU Anti-Trafficking Day was held 18 October. The aim of the meeting was to endorse "recommendations on identification and referral to services of victims of trafficking in human beings" and "to debate an assessment manual comprising recommended indicators to evaluate and measure the results of anti-trafficking policy in all EU Member States." The web site for the meeting provides access to the various documents that were up for discussion and EU directives concerning steps already taken to combat trafficking.

In addition, a number of NGOs that work on trafficking issues presented a joint statement supporting the call for action made at the meeting.

Migration Policy:

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) measures how successfully EU countries integrate immigrants.

The European Migration Network's latest annual policy report was issued recently. It includes a brief update on 2006 policy developments relating to refugee protection and asylum in EU Member States.

Posted in Events and Publications.

Redhum

La Red de Información Humanitaria, or Redhum, was officially launched on the last day of the Global Symposium on Humanitarian Information. Redhum is a Spanish-language site that provides information on natural disasters and complex emergencies in Latin America and the Caribbean. It disseminates news, sitreps, maps, vacancy and training announcements, and serves as a regional counterpart to ReliefWeb.

For more information, read this UN news report and OCHA's press release.

Posted in Web Sites.

Conference Presentations: European Ministers of Justice, Global Symposium, Intl. Metropolis Project

Researchers can read reports and statements and, in some cases, even view presentations from several conferences that have recently concluded.

The 12th International Metropolis Conference, which met 8-12 October 2007 in Melbourne, has PowerPoint presentations for many of its presenters at http://www.metropolis2007.org/.

The 28th Conference of European Ministers of Justice, which met 25-26 October 2007 in Spain and focused on "Emerging issues of access to justice for vulnerable groups, in particular migrants and asylum seekers, and children," has statements and reports at http://www.coe.int/t/dg1/legalcooperation/minjust/mju28/default_en.asp.

The Global Symposium +5 ‘Information for Humanitarian Action’, which met from 22-26 October 2007 in Geneva, has video webcasts, PowerPoint presentations and photos at http://www.reliefweb.int/symposium/.

Posted in Events and Publications.

New Pubs. on Children, Darfur, Human Trafficking, Irregular Migration, Press Freedom, Sexual Health

EXCOM Conclusion on Children at Risk, no. 107 (Oct. 2007) [text]

Human Trafficking: Update (House of Lords & House of Commons, Oct. 2007) [text]

Humanitarian advocacy in Darfur: the challenge of neutrality (Humanitarian Policy Group, Oct. 2007) [text]

The myth of invasion: Irregular migration from West Africa to the Maghreb and the European Union (International Migration Institute, Oct. 2007) [text]

Press Freedom Index 2007 (Reporters without Borders, 2007) [text]

Sexual health, asylum seekers and refugees: A handbook for people working with refugees and asylum seekers in England (FPA, 2007) [text]

Posted in Publications.

New Pubs. on EXCOM, Human Rights/Iraq, Integration, Palestinian Refugees/Lebanon, Peace Efforts, Reconstruction

Addressing Internal Displacement in Peace Processes, Peace Agreements and Peace-Building (Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Sept. 2007) [text]

Developing Media in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations (USIP, Oct. 2007) [text]

Exiled and Suffering: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (Amnesty International, Oct. 2007) [text]

Human Rights Report, 1 April to 30 June 2007 (UN Assistance Mission for Iraq , Oct. 2007) [text]

Refugees' Experiences of Integration (Refugee Council and Univ. of Birmingham, Oct. 2007) [access]

Report of the fifty-eighth session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, A/AC.96/1048, 10 October 2007 [text]

Posted in Publications.

Journal News/New Issues of IFIR, JRS, Resettlement News, Transcult Psych.

Journal News:

Disasters now offers access to articles published online prior to their inclusion in the print edition; visit the OnlineEarly page for titles and abstracts.

Health and Human Rights will become an open access journal online as of the issue Vol. 10, No. 1, January 2008. For more information, visit the journal's web page.

New Issues:

Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 20, no. 3 (Sept. 2007) [contents]
- Includes report of the 10th International Association for the Study of Forced Migration conference, a debate on forced migration studies, and articles on refugees in Glasgow, Melbourne, and Michigan, Japanese asylum policy, the economy of a refugee camp, and UNHCR's Convention Plus initiative.

Newsletter of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, no. 1 (Sept. 2007) [text]

Resettlement News, no. 16 (July 2007) [text]
- News and reports relating to development induced displacement and resettlement.

Transcultural Psychiatry, vol. 44, no. 3 (Sept. 2007) [contents]
- Focus of this issue is "refugees and forced migration."

Posted in Periodicals.

Humanitarian Information Symposium

The first Symposium on Best Practices in Humanitarian Information Management and Exchange, held in 2002, endorsed a set of principles "now recognised as standards for the collection, processing and dissemination of humanitarian information." The aim of the second Symposium, scheduled for 22-26 October 2007 in Geneva, is to build on the foundations laid five years ago by continuing to identify, discuss and make recommendations for information management approaches in the humanitarian community.

A recent article in Information Management Journal reviews ReliefWeb and its recent redesign process. Other articles that focus on humanitarian information practices can be found in ReliefWeb's documents collection.

Posted in Events and Publications.

New Pubs. on Asylum/EU, Conflict Costs/Africa, Early Warning, Iraqis/EU, Livelihoods/Darfur, Peace Agreements, Refugees, Statistics

Accountability and Peace Agreements: Mapping Trends from 1980 to 2006 (Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Sept. 2007) [text via ReliefWeb]

Africa’s missing billions: International arms flows and the cost of conflict (Oxfam, Oct. 2007) [text]

"Asylum applications in the European Union," Statistics in Focus 110/2007 (Eurostat, Sept. 2007) [text]

Fortress Europe and the Iraqi ‘intruders’: Iraqi asylum-seekers and the EU, 2003-2007, New Issues in Refugee Research, no. 144 (UNHCR, Oct. 2007) [text]

Global Survey of Early Warning Systems: Report of the Secretary-General,
A/62/340 (Sept. 2007) [text via UN Pulse]

"Refugee Generating States, Global Inequalities, Feminization, and Individual Strategies: An Assessment at the Beginning of the 21st Century," Refuge and Rejection: The Humanities in the Study of Forced Migration (ASU, Oct. 2007) [text]

Sharpening the Strategic Focus of Livelihoods Programming in the Darfur Region: A report of four livelihoods workshops in the Darfur region (June 30 to July 11, 2007) (Feinstein International Center, Sept. 2007) [text]

Statistics on Displaced Iraqis around the World (UNHCR, Sept. 2007) [text]

Submission from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles in response to the Commission’s Green Paper on the Future Common European Asylum System (COM (2007) 301) (ECRE, Sept. 2007) [text]

Posted in Publications.

Event Podcasts

Following on from yesterday's post, podcasts represent yet another tool that can be used to share conference discussions with a wider audience. The Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN) recently posted a podcast of "Can journalists and aid workers trust each other," a meeting held with "ALNAP and Reuters Alertnet to look at the relationship between journalists and aid workers, and the lack of trust that is often a central characteristic of this relationship." For more information about the meeting and access to the podcast, visit HPN's meeting page for the event.

Posted in Events and Web Sites/Tools.

Monitoring Conferences

How can people monitor conferences that they are not able to attend? Here are a few newly available resources:

The International Metropolis Conference is currently under way in Melbourne. Christopher McDowell, the director of the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK (ICAR), is attending the conference and, in the process, providing brief summaries and assessments of the debates taking place through postings to ICAR's Policyblog. The first was posted on October 8th. The conference continues through the 12th. Presentations from past conferences are available on the Metropolis Project's web site.

The latest issue of the Journal of Refugee Studies has been published. It includes reflections on the last International Association of Forced Migration Studies (IASFM) conference, which was held in Toronto in 2006. A conference blog also provided summaries of quite a few of the discussions. Unfortunately, IASFM does not provide abstracts of past meetings on its web site.

Posted in Events and Web Sites/Tools.

New Periodical Issues: Harvard Human Rights J., JEMS, Migration Lett., Researcher, Torture

Harvard Human Rights Journal, vol. 20 (Spring 2007) [full-text]

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 33, no. 8 (2007) [contents]

Migration Letters, vol. 4, no. 2 (Oct. 2007) [full-text]
- Special issue on "Migration and Human Security in the Balkans."

The Researcher, vol. 2, no. 3 (Sept. 2007) [full-text]

Torture Journal, vol. 17, no. 2 (2007) [full-text]
- Shared reports from the IRCT Symposium on Torture, the theme for which was "Providing Reparation and Treatment, Preventing Impunity."

Posted in Periodicals.

New Pubs. on Asylum-Seekers/Malta, Evaluations, Expulsion/Russia, Famine Relief/Zimbabwe, Health, HIV/AIDS, IDPs, Iraqis, Peace Efforts, Women

Access to health care and human rights of asylum seekers in Malta: Experiences, results and recommendations (Médecins du Monde, 2007) [text]

Fighting HIV/AIDS together with refugees and internally displaced populations: Summary of 2006 UNHCR Missions (UNHCR, Sept. 2007) [text]

Impact Assessment of the Gokwe Integrated Recovery Action Project Zimbabwe (Feinstein International Center, August 2007) [text]

Real-time Evaluations of UNHCR's Involvement in Operations for Internally Displaced Persons and the Cluster Approach: Analysis of Findings, EC/58/SC/CRP.23 (EXCOM Standing Committee, August 2007) [text]

Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security, S/2007/567 (12 Sept. 2007) [text via UN Pulse]

Singled Out: Russia’s Detention and Expulsion of Georgians (Human Rights Watch, Oct. 2007) [text]

"Where to Now? Decreasing Options for Displaced Iraqis," by A. Harper, Migration Information Source (Sept. 2007) [text]

Posted in Publications.

UNHCR Executive Committee, 58th Session

The 58th session of UNHCR's Executive Committee began yesterday and will continue through Friday, October 5th.

Relevant documents:

- See the provisional agenda for more details of topics that will be addressed throughout the week.

- Consult the schedule for when and where events take place.

- Read the opening speech of the High Commissioner, Mr. António Guterres.

- Browse the reports and documents that will be discussed during the session.

The Nansen Refugee Award ceremony was held the evening of October 1st, honoring Katrine Camilleri, a lawyer with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Malta.

Posted in Publications and Events.

New Pubs. on Drug Donations, Intl. Law, Palestinian Refugees/Iraq, Post-Conflict, ReliefWeb, Separated Children

Dealing with the Past in Post-Conflict Societies: Ten Years after the Peace Accords - in Guatemala and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Swiss Peace Annual Conference, Sept. 2007) [text via ReliefWeb]

Determining the Best Interests of Unaccompanied and Separated Children: Lessons from Guinea (International Rescue Committee, Sept. 2007) [text via ReliefWeb]

"Drug Donations in Emergencies, the Sri Lankan post-tsunami experience," by R. Hechmann, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (26 Sept. 2007) [text]

International Law Commission: Report on the work of its fifty-ninth session (7 May to 5 June and 9 July to 10 August 2007), A/62/10; see esp. Chapter 6, “Expulsion of Aliens” (UN, 2007) [text]

Iraq: Human rights abuses against Palestinian refugees (Amnesty International, Oct. 2007) [text]

"Redesigning the ReliefWeb," by S. Naidoo, in Information Management Journal (Sept. 2007) [text]

Posted in Publications.