What does refugee protection look like in states facing extraordinary refugee influxes and who
are not party to the key international legal instruments providing for the protection of the world's
refugees? In the Arab Middle East, only Egypt and Yemen are parties to the 1951 Refugee
Convention. At the same time, the region has long had a complex history of alternatively hosting
and creating massive refugee flows.
The REF-ARAB project offers a framework capable of grasping the multifaceted characteristics of
refugee protection in this region by studying the practice of, and interaction between, actors on a
global, national and local level.
It:
1) studies the historical and political circumstances related to why so many states in the Arab
Middle East have remained non-parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention;
2) explores how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) executes its
mandate to provide international protection to refugees in these same states; and
3) examines the avenues available for refugees in these countries by means of non-governmental
legal aid organizations in securing legal protection on the basis of human rights instruments and
other domestic legislation.
The project adopts both a broader perspective that historically and politically situates these
non-party states within the international refugee regime, and a more focused perspective that
grounds refugee protection in lived experiences and local initiatives.
REF-ARAB commenced on 1 July 2019. The research team is composed of researchers from the
Universities of Oslo, Warwick, York, Glasgow and Erbil Polytechnic University. Two postdoctoral
researchers were hired in 2020 to focus on Saudi Arabia and Iraq. An advisory board of local
practitioners and scholars from Oxford University, Boston University, and Lebanese American
University is also attached to the project. During 2020-2022 data collection took place in a number of countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia,Lebanon and Egypt.
The REF-ARAB project collaborates closely with the project "Protection without Ratification?
International Refugee Law beyond States Parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention (BEYOND)",
funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant
agreement No 851121 (ERC Starting Grant 2019).
In 2022, the REF-ARAB project has focused on research dissemination, including academic publishing as well as activities targeting a broader, non-academic audience. The project has over the last year organized and participated in seminars and panels in countries such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon to communicate preliminary research findings.
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What does refugee protection look like in states facing extraordinary refugee influxes and who are not party to the key international legal instruments providing for the protection of the worlds refugees? In seeking answers, this highly topical research project will: 1) study the historical and political circumstances related to why so many states in the Arab Middle East (AME) have remained non-parties to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention); 2) explore how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) executes its mandate to provide international protection to refugees in these same states; and 3) examine the avenues available for refugees in these countries by means of non-governmental legal aid organizations in securing legal protection on the basis of human rights instruments and other domestic legislation.
The project carries great societal significance, for refugees themselves, for AME states hosting large refugee populations, and for European states (Norway included) seeking to externalize migration control and contain refugees in AME states. The states of the AME are at the frontier of the international refugee regime; few have signed the Refugee Convention and no states have developed comprehensive national asylum systems. Yet, the region has long been one of the worlds major producers of refugees; today, more than 60% of the worlds refugees are found in the Middle East and North Africa region, with Syrians constituting the worlds single largest refugee population. This interdisciplinary project seeks to explore the conceptualizations and manifestations of refugee protection in these AME states. It offers a broad perspective that historically and politically situates these states within the international refugee regime, and a focused perspective that socio-legally grounds refugee protection in lived experiences and local initiatives.