Migrants / refugees

The Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 defines a refugee as someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”. Whereas all refugees are migrants, not all migrants are refugees. According the UN’s definition, a migrant is a person who is born in one country and lives in another country for more than one year for whatever reasons. A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his or her country because of a major political crisis: war, ethnic violence, etc. He or she is first an asylum seeker and may later obtain the status of refugee.The practical application of this definition or, in other words, the answer to the question "who is a refugee and not simply a migrant?" has changed considerably since its adoption. With the cold war over, refugees have lost their status as an instrument of western soft power, whereas with the economic crisis and terrorism, hostility towards migrants is increasing. Prevailing representations of migration movements are convincing a growing proportion of the European population that migrants are a threat and refugees a burden.

The workings of CRASH draw on social sciences and Médecins Sans Frontières’ experience. This file contains a collection of publications (articles, opinion columns, blog articles, press releases, CRASH papers) from 1990 to date, focusing on two themes :This file does not include articles on refugees and their links to the different armed conflicts or on the intervention or non-intervention of MSF in these different contexts.The first is the dichotomy between hospitality policy and migration policy. Notions such as the right of asylum, respect for human dignity, respect for the law and the duty of hospitality, solidarity and reception are being confronted with the migration policies of the majority of governments. In the articles in this file, the members of CRASH question the apparent lack of clarity in the distinction between economic migrants and refugees fleeing from wars, and the idea that the assistance given to them is a pull factor that attracts more migrants. They also draw attention to the violence that migrants are exposed to in their daily lives, sometimes at the hands of the police. And although they agree with the criticisms made of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey (March 2016), the members of CRASH also criticise MSF’s refusal to seek European funding.

The second theme is camps and is approached from a number of different angles.
1° Their temporality: permanent settlement or temporary refuge? Although camps are intended to provide emergency accommodation, they often become a long-term solution.
2° Their functioning:  security at the cost of freedom? Given the exceptional regime in place in camps, what freedom does their supervision by the authorities allow the people living there?
3° Their limits: towards a policy of “disencampment”?  In some cases, camps, which now only concern one third of the world's refugees, are more like detention or work camps. Reflection is underway to find an alternative to camps.