There were seven women and three children among the 27 people who tragically lost their lives in the English Channel this week. Women and children are frequently among those seeking a new life in Europe: as of November 21, this year 27.1% of migrants arriving by sea in the Mediterranean are women or children. The channel presents a final dangerous crossing after what is normally a long, treacherous and often violent journey. News broke of these recent tragic deaths on the eve of November 25, the...
European member state security forces, supported by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, known as Frontex, have pushed back around 40,000 refugees attempting to cross national borders during the pandemic, according to an investigation based on UN reports and records kept by NGOs. These actions have been linked to 2,000 migrant deaths, chiefly from boats taken back out to sea. For more than a decade, researchers, UN agencies and NGOs have documented these illegal pushbacks. Now the Europea...
Amid profound instability unleashed with the Libyan civil war and rival factions vying for power, conditions facing the roughly 650,000 migrants who remain in Libya have been dire. Those living in the community are vulnerable to extortion, violence, and slave-like work conditions, while migrants held in detention centres may experience overcrowding, sexual abuse, forced labour, torture, and deprivation of food, sunlight, and water. Amid entrenched fighting around Tripoli, including a deadly airs...
Eritreans on a bus on the road between Keren and Agordat in Eritrea. Eye Ubiquitous/UIG via Getty Images Most Eritreans understand the horrors that await them as they travel to seek refuge. Researcher Katie Kuschminder reveals some of the coping mechanisms developed in response. For years, Eritreans fleeing their homeland have known that, even if they make it to Libya, they will be kidnapped and ransomed. The extortion is systematic. Since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi, the southeast of Libya has ...
The number of families migrating via the central Mediterranean, the world’s most dangerous migration route, is actually quite low. In 2017, 74% of arrivals in Italy were men, 11% women and 15% children; a striking 91% of children arriving were unaccompanied. There are several reasons why so few families arrive together in Italy. In this post I will focus on examining one particular country of origin group: Eritreans. Most Eritreans are granted refugee status upon arrival in Europe and were one o...
As a Canadian, my 'mygration' story is not unusual – a mix of different places and several unknowns. For a start, I know a lot more about my mother’s side than my father’s. The father of my grandma arrived in Canada as a young child, and his family had left Russia because antisemitism was (once again) on the rise. The story goes that my great-grandfather was whipped in the face by a policeman on horseback, leaving a permanent scar under one eye. This was the final straw, pushing the family to le...
EU leaders have agreed to a plan that will provide Libya’s UN-backed government €200 million for dealing with migration. This includes an increase in funding for the Libyan coastguard, with an overall aim to stop migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean to Italy....
As Maastricht University enters Period 4 of the 2015/2016 Academic Year, University College Maastricht (UCM) is offering a new course on migration led by the Migration Studies Group at UNU-MERIT, including Melissa Siegel, Özge Bilgili, Michaella Vanore and myself, Katie Kuschminder as the Course Coordinator and Developer. The course was added to the Bachelor’s options in late 2015, and now has more than 80 students enrolled. Here are three key reasons why it is important to study migration: 1. M...
In early September 2015, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade & Development Cooperation together with the State Secretary for Security & Justice sent a letter to their House of Representatives about the European asylum system. The letter, says Dr. Katie Kuschminder, proposes a new policy based around three points: 1) That asylum seekers should be processed by UNHCR within their region; 2) That asylum seekers who reach the Netherlands can be sent back to a ‘region of safety’; 3) That some...
Migration has been at the top of the political agenda all year. Yet the focus has too often been on curbing the flow of migrants, either with more aid or border controls. In this context, and drawing lessons from both East Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Katie Kuschminder was asked to present to the Dutch Government on migration issues and trends, particularly in Africa. See her summary, recommendations and video below. On 1 October 2015 I was invited by the Africa Group to give a talk...