On Erna speaking about refugees, 2001

The perks of doing archival research is that you occasionally come across some gems: Status of Refugees – a speech by Erna Solberg, (then) Minister of local Government and Regional Development, at the Ministerial meeting of states parties to the convention relating to the status of refugees on 12 December 2001, Geneva: This 50th anniversary provides […]

On debates re: European burden sharing

17-18.03.2016: European Council Conclusions; UNHCR response 15.03.2016: “Later, this month, [Grandi] will issue an appeal for member states [of the UN] to accept at least 10 percent of Syria’s refugees. That’s 400,000 people who need to be resettled, including about 170,000 whom nations have already promised to take,” UN Refugee Chief: Western Leaders Stir Up […]

On 2014 Statistical Yearbook

UNHCR just released their 2014 Statistical Yearbook. From chapter 3, durable solutions and new displacement — The number of countries admitting refugees for resettlement has remained relatively stagnant in recent years. Likewise, the number of available resettlement places has not grown significantly. These trends are in contrast to the number of resettlement claims, which continues […]

On public lectures: Navigating Nakivale @ RCC

Morten Bøås gave a lecture at the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre on “Navigating Nakivale: the borderland economy of a refugee camp” on 13 November 2015. The talk focused on how the combination of conflict + different types of interventions produces outcomes: “what matters is not only the cards you were dealt, but your ability to play them”. […]

On the other refugee crisis

Ben Rawlence writes in the New York Times of one of the other refugee crises — protracted situations by way of long-term refugee camps, Dadaab is not an anachronism, or a hangover from a former world order. It is the future. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Dadaab was created as a short-term haven […]