Issue 67

Refugees and vulnerable migrants in Europe

September 15, 2016
Humanitarian Practice Network
A family of Kurdish refugees from Aleppo walk towards the village of Idomeni on the Greek - FYR of Macedonia border.
160 min read

This edition of Humanitarian Exchange is dedicated to the humanitarian response to the influx of refugees and vulnerable migrants into Europe over the past year.

  • One of the most notable features of the European response, as Pamela DeLargy notes in her lead article, is the central role volunteers have played – in stark contrast to the much slower response of international agencies and donors.
  • Laetitia de Radigues and Ludovico Gammarelli give an overview of the European Commission’s response.
  • Key findings of research led by Coventry University on the complex picture of migration into Greece are summarised by Heaven Crawley.
  • Jessica Hagen-Zanker and Richard Mallett highlight the limitations of deterrence policies in determining people’s migration choices.
  • Amelia Stoenescu and colleagues report on International Organisation for Migration (IOM) data and information-sharing systems to track movements in the Western Balkans.
  • Gareth Walker discusses the challenges of addressing the health needs of mobile populations.
  • Returning to the issue of volunteerism, John Borton reflects on the potential implications for humanitarian action.
  • Emma Eggink and Melinda McRostie give a first-hand account of the evolution of the Starfish Foundation, a grassroots volunteer initiative on Lesvos.
  • The contribution of Hellenic Red Cross volunteers is highlighted by Kate Latimir.
  • Rachel Erskine and Katie Robertson outline RedR’s training programme for volunteers.
  • In a pair of articles, Elodie Francart, Michaël Neuman and Angélique Muller reflect on Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s experience in Brussels and northern France in engaging with NGOs, volunteer groups, municipal officials and political activists.
  • Alexandre Le Clève, Evangeline Masson-Diez and Olivier Peyroux underline the predicament of unaccompanied children in camps in northern France and along the Channel coast.
  • Minh Tram Le and colleagues highlight the importance of infant and young child feeding for refugees stranded in Greece.
  • The edition ends with articles by Emily Whitehead and Theo Hannides and colleagues reflecting on the findings from an independent evaluation of the Start Network’s collaborative response and the findings of Start-funded research on the information and communication needs of refugees in Greece and Germany.

Issue 67 articles