Our comparative fieldwork highlights the processes of Refugee Status Determination in a number of countries. To contextualise pressing issues our research team met a number of key informants including representatives from regional bodies, non-governmental organisations and refugee-led community organisations.
From end of October to mid-December 2019, Dr Caroline Nalule conducted field research in Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa for the recognising refugees strand of the RefMig project. She conducted interviews mainly with practitioners in refugee matters, including NGOs, CSOs and the UNHCR, as well as refugees and asylum seekers. At the time of the study, a new refugees amendment Act had been passed by parliament but was yet to be operationalised, hence there was a measure of uncertainty among all the interlocutors regarding the situation of refugees and asylum seekers, particularly those with papers about to expire and that would have to be renewed. While the Department for Home Affairs reiterated its commitment to ensure that all who seek protection in South Africa are documented, those that sought protection lamented the difficulty in getting the necessary documentation issued timeously or for a certain validity period which, according to the law, should be four years for recognised refugees. There was a marked uncertainty and apprehension on the part of those seeking protection regarding their residency in South Africa, in particular, but regarding the protection of their rights as refugees, more generally. Hopefully, the Refugees Amendment Act operationalised in January 2020, notwithstanding some of its controversial and contestable provisions that go to the substance of refugee protection, may create more certainty and efficiency in the refugee status determination process. Dr Nalule visited the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand during her visit.
Dr Derya Ozkul visited Lebanon in April and July-September 2019. She has conducted around 30 elite interviews with NGO workers providing legal services for refugees, the General Security, which is the responsible authority for all foreigners in the country, UNHCR RSD and resettlement officers, as well as Embassy officials who are facilitating resettlement from Lebanon. She also conducted semi-structured interviews with refugees and asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, and Sudan (the top three recognised nationalities).These interviews aimed to understand how refugees and asylum seekers navigate the bureaucracies, their experiences with the authorities, and legal and social problems in Lebanon.
Dr Caroline Nalule was based in Kenya (December and May-July 2019) where she met with NGOs, both in Nairobi and Kakuma that work with refugees and also spoke to Kenyan academics and a refugee law practitioner. She held extensive discussions with the Government of Kenya Refugee Affairs Secretariat, both in Nairobi and Kakuma, as well as with officers of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This research included individual interviews, with refugees and asylum seekers and two focus group discussions to help provide an overview of what refugees and asylum seekers think of the recognition process in Kenya, suggested improvements to the process as well as challenges they faced in integration into Kenyan society.
On 2nd September 2019 Derya Ozkul attended the launch of a new report by The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut and Save the Children International (SCI) . The report considers the impact of the "Occupancy Free of Charge" (OFC) initiative that has been introduced with the aim of increasing the capacity of local communities to host refugees and to provide minimum standard housing and tenure security for vulnerable Syrian refugees.
On 26-29 August 2019 Derya Ozkul attended a migration study week organised by Lebanon Support in Beirut focusing on: ‘Migration, mobility, and circulation in the Middle East: rethinking inequalities and informality’. The Migration Study Week offers a participatory, interdisciplinary, innovative, and intensive immersion in migration issues in the Middle East. It sheds light on the national (macro-), subnational/local (meso-), and individual (micro-) levels and the extent to which migration governance can contribute to perpetuate inequality and social injustice in the region, as well as the emergence of (informal) strategies deployed by migrants and refugees in order to “navigate” increasingly constraining systems. It offered a space for synergies, networking, and sharing experiences between scholars and practitioners in the region, in view of facilitating multi-disciplinary collaboration.
The RefMig team talk to Lucy Kiama, Country Director, HIAS Refugee Trust of Kenya - June 2019
Professor Cathryn Costello and Dr Derya Ozkul attended an international conference organised by the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, titled “Power, Borders and Ecologies in Arab Societies: Practices and Imaginaries” on April 12-14, 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon. The conference included various themes ranging from migration and displacement to borders between nations, minorities and sects in the Arab region.
