Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Refugees Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on April 1, 2019, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on refugees and migration. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Paul Currion Consultant
As part of our series “This Age of Migration,” Paul Currion argues that increasing militarization in Europe in response to the refugee crisis is akin to an autoimmune response that could attack the very body it is supposed to protect.
Francesca Pierigh Media and Communications Assistant, European Council on Refugees and Exiles
Several thousand migrants and refugees are living in disused Olympic facilities in Athens. Representatives from ECRE and AIRE Centre visited in June and found strangely arbitrary differences in how parts of the camp are treated.
Bill Frelick Director, Refugee Rights Program at Human Rights Watch
In the first part of our series “The Road to UNGA,” Bill Frelick, director of HRW’s Refugee Rights Program, calls for protection of migrants “who do not qualify for international protection as refugees” in the lead-up to the U.N. Summit on Refugees and Migrants.
The second part of our report on Yemeni refugees in Somaliland looks at how they have become part of the breakaway region’s struggle for international recognition, leaving them in awkward limbo.
Bruna Kadletz Works with Displaced Communities
In the second part of our Displaced and Disposable series, social researcher Bruna Kadletz encounters astonishing examples of altruism towards some of the thousands of refugees on Lesvos, Greece, showing that ‘the other’ doesn’t have to be met with hostility.
Stephanie Gee Robert L. Bernstein Refugee Rights Fellow, Human Rights Watch
With 1.5 million school-age children missing school despite host countries’ best efforts, Stephanie Gee, refugee rights fellow at Human Rights Watch, explores how kids’ access to education depends on their parents’ right to work.
Jeff Crisp Formerly Head of Policy Development and Evaluation, UNHCR
In the lead-up to September’s U.N. summit on refugees and migrants, Jeff Crisp, associate fellow at Chatham House, warns that growing isolationism will prevent a successful initiative and further weaken refugee protection.
Will Jones and Alex Teytelboym Lecturer, the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford
Matching theory can drastically improve refugee resettlement, argue Will Jones and Alex Teytelboym, who have adapted algorithms used for school choice.
In this second part of our investigation into prostitution among child refugees in Athens, we see how lack of shelter and the rising price of people-smuggling are leaving them prey to the drug trade.
Attila Kulcsar Humanitarian Media Officer, Oxfam International
As civil society organizations gather at the U.N. today to prepare for September’s summit on refugees and migrants, Oxfam launches the ‘Stand as One’ campaign, urging world leaders to guarantee displaced people safety, protection and sustainable futures.
When the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, a Malta-based NGO, rescued 352 Eritreans stranded in Libyan waters, four of their fellow passengers didn’t make it to safety. Here, members of the rescue team share images from the dramatic rescue and its aftermath.
Brexit was powered by fantasies of border control, the Leave campaign playing to fears of too many migrants in the U.K. Lawyer Simon Cox argues that the costs of making those border controls a reality would be unprecedented.
In the first in our series on the aftermath of Brexit, we discuss whether another conversation about immigration is still possible in Europe and beyond.
Around one in 10 women refugees travelling through Europe is pregnant. Better coordinated approaches from states and NGOs are urgently needed to keep women and their newborn babies safe and well.
Giorgos Kosmopoulos Researcher on Refugee and Migrant Rights, Amnesty International
Amnesty International’s Giorgos Kosmopoulos highlights the risks that lone refugee women in transit camps on Greek islands face in the absence of protection – a basic tenet of international humanitarian law.
Christine Mahoney Director, Social Entrepreneurship Department of the University of Virginia
Professor Christine Mahoney, author of “Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced,” argues from the World Humanitarian Summit that traditional political advocacy is of limited value in improving the lives of refugees and IDPs.
Jeff Crisp Formerly Head of Policy Development and Evaluation, UNHCR
Jeff Crisp of the Oxford Refugee Studies Center examines the Humanitarian Summit’s key premises – a ‘grand bargain’ to bridge the gap between need and funding, and a ‘global compact’ to revive the belief that refugees are an international responsibility.
In the concluding part of our series on female refugees, we explore the challenges of identifying abuse and exploitation of lone women on the move – who are highly susceptible to sex trafficking and sometimes coerced into “transactional sex” to pay their way forward.
In this first installment of a three-part series, we explore the threats faced by female refugees, especially Syrian women – including the risk of being trafficked into the sex trade on their journeys to Europe and even after reaching its shores.
As thousands of ethnic Kokang refugees remain stranded in China, communities have been emptied and transformed into “ghost villages” on the Myanmar-China border, according to recent updates by the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF).
During his final stop of our series “Route Mediterranean,” journalist Eric Reidy visits support groups struggling to provide regular services in the refugee camps of Idomeni, northern Greece, where people are living in complete limbo.
Rory O'Keeffe Humanitarian and Journalist
While David Cameron has made concessions in recent days, over the vote against taking in young refugees, commentator Rory O’Keeffe argues British parliamentary ploys to obstruct asylum seekers are undemocratic and calls for a long-term open-door policy for minors.
Solon Ardittis Director, Eurasylum
While commending the latest European Commission’s proposals of “fair” burden sharing as the most progressive model to date, Solon Ardittis, director of Eurasylum, contends that the proposal ought to be supported by a global resettlement scheme.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctor Conor Kenny writes from Idomeni, Greece, where more than 10,000 refugees are trapped at the border with Macedonia.
In this first-person account, photographer Kashif Ali describes the lives of a Rohingya community in Hyderabad as they seek recognition by the Indian government on the one hand, while making peace with the finality of their exodus on the other.
Josephine Huetlin Based at the Europe and Central Asia Division, Human Rights Watch
The Russian government’s crackdown on civil society groups by classifying them as “foreign agents” involved in “political activities” has extended to NGOs filling the gaps in state support for refugees, claim Human Rights Watch researchers.
While the E.U.-Turkey deal jeopardized the onward journeys of many Syrian refugees, South Asians do not stand a chance of admission to Europe, despite having legitimate grounds to claim asylum. Lesvos is the fourth stop in our series Route Mediterranean.
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