Peace Research Institute Oslo

The Search for Creativity in

Response to Crisis:

Moving Beyond Durable

Solutions?

2nd Annual Conference, Refugee Law Initiative

7 May | London

Amanda Cellini

Background of Project

2Source: IOM Archives

3Source: Mother Jones Magazine, Feb-March 1983

Legal

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International

• New Refugee

Convention

• Operationalize 1951

Convention

• Int’l Conferences

• International Compact

(2018)

• Emergency resettlement

country joint support

mechanism (UNHCR)

• Pre-determined quotas

• New legal mandates to

curb smuggling activities

Regional

• Enforce Dublin

• Re-work Dublin

Agreement

• Regional compacts

• 1-to-1 swaps (EU-

Turkey)

• “Corrective fairness

mechanisms” for EU

internal redistribution

• Fines / penalties for not

taking EU-internal

redistribution cases

• Instant status

determination at border

crossings based on

country of origin

National

• Additional legal

pathways for admission

(humanitarian visas,

etc.)

• Student visas,

scholarships

• Visa waivers / pre-

clearance

• “Extreme vetting”

Logistical

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To promote safe movement• International conferences

• Build/ purchase island

• Floteller (“floating hotels”)

• Bi-national cities that straddle national borders

• Open borders

• Updated “Nansen Passports” (Sesame Pass + Refugia)

• Cooperation / pre-clearance pre-departure

• Safe transport: ferries, planes (government)

• Safe transport: yachts, ships (NGO/private)

• Floating hotspots for processing

• Tradable quotas, “matching markets”

To prevent / limit movement• Safe zones

• Containing asylum seekers in one country (Libya, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Jordan)

• Internment camps

• “The rescue is the route – pick them up from the sea and send them back”

• Detention, prison

• Border controls

• Resumption / rebuilding of physical borders between countries (&opting out of Schengen)

• Physical obstacles

• Offshore processing sites

• “flexible solidarity”

• Special Economic Zones (SEZ)

Local

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Country of first asylum• Stopping conflict / other push factors

• Stopping migration at the source (info campaign about how terrible journey will be)

• Understanding conflict

• Fight corruption

• EU funding to different regions

• Special Economic Zones (SEZ)

• Investing in schools and hospitals

• Investing in border patrols (EU-Frontex; EU-Sudan, Libya)

• Better conditions in refugee camps (example: IKEA new shelter)

Destination• Private sponsorship

• Monthly payments to host refugees

• “Sanctuary cities” in countries

• School scholarships

• Gas taxes

• Private investment in business proposals; micro lending

• “AirBnB for refugees”

• Employment opportunities specifically for refugees (“1951” coffee shop, etc)

• Technology: use of VR to humanize refugees to locals

• Technology: “hack” the refugee crisis (apps, etc)

• Technology: translation assistance

Questions and plan for moving forward

7Source: IOM Archives

The challenge of political will

“As the empirical evidence presented in this book tragically attests, the reality

today is that a significant number of governments in all parts of the world are

withdrawing in practice from meeting the legal duty to provide refugees with

the protection they require. While states continue to proclaim a willingness to

assist refugees as a matter of political discretion or humanitarian goodwill,

many appear committed to a pattern of defensive strategies designed to avoid

international legal responsibility toward involuntary migrants. Some see this

shift away from a legal paradigm of refugee protection as a source of

enhanced operational flexibility in the face of changed political circumstances.

For refugees themselves, however, the increasingly marginal relevance of

international refugee law has in practice signaled a shift to inferior or illusory

protection.”

-- James Hathaway, The Rights of Refugees Under International Law (2005), p. 998

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