Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration
OxMo – Vol. 5, No. 2
http://oxmofm.com/current-issue/
.
Academic Article
State responsibility for international cooperation on migration control: the case of Australia
Nikolas Feith Tan
This article examines international cooperation on migration control with particular reference to the case of Australia, a state that has entered into a range of migration control and asylum processing arrangements with neighbouring developing countries. The article defines such arrangements, designed to prevent access to asylum, as cooperative non-entrée. In the past 15 years, Australia has developed a far-reaching cooperative nonentrée regime with countries of origin and transit. These extraterritorial cooperation arrangements challenge the reach of human rights and refugee law. The article considers two avenues to hold Australia internationally responsible for human rights and refugee law violations in the course of cooperative non-entrée practices, namely extraterritorial human rights jurisdiction and complicity under the law of State Responsibility. The article concludes that despite the extraterritorial and international character of cooperative nonentrée, Australia is not beyond the reach of international law.
.
Policy Monitor
On encampment and gendered vulnerabilities: a critical analysis of the UK’s vulnerable persons relocation scheme for Syrian refugees
Lewis Turner
This paper offers a critical analysis of the UK’s Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme for Syrian refugees, arguing that its focus on refugee camps is neither reflective of the realities of refugeehood for Syrians in the Middle East, nor in line with developments in UNHCR
policy. In its substance and presentation, the scheme exploits gendered notions of vulnerability, allowing the UK to position itself as a defender of the helpless in camps, while simultaneously reinforcing its attempts to depict refugees and migrants in Europe as
‘threatening’, and to resist their resettlement in the UK.
.
Syrian informal tented settlements in Jordan: humanitarian gaps and challenges
Alex Odlum
Syrian refugees in Jordan have predominantly rented accommodation in urban and periurban areas or relied on humanitarian assistance channelled through formal camps. Yet, faced with unaffordable rents and living costs in Jordanian towns, the unsuitability of remote refugee camps, and the prospect of etching out a living through informal agricultural labour, over 16,000 Syrians have resorted to living in informal tented settlements (ITS) across rural Jordan. This article draws attention to the neglected plight of Syrian ITS in Jordan, analyses the Jordanian Government’s policy response to the expansion of ITS, and calls for stronger humanitarian as well as legal support to vulnerable ITS dwellers.
.
Law Monitor
Forced displacement as a war crime in non-international armed conflicts under the ICC Statute: exploring the horizons of a wider interpretation complimenting international humanitarian law
Anubhav Dutt Tiwara
Forced displacement has become a regular feature of non-international armed conflicts pointing towards the fragrant violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) by parties to the conflicts. The paper addresses the war crime of forced displacement in internal armed conflicts under the Statute of the International Criminal Court and advances the argument that the provision must be interpreted against the background of IHL principles. Such wider interpretation not only fulfills the legal obligation to interpret the treaty in good faith, but may act as a deterrent to armed actors in such conflict, and thus prove beneficial for the effective protection of civilians during internal armed conflicts.