Workers in Metema, Ethiopia, load luggage that belongs to refugees from Sudan who fled the fighting in Khartoum, May 5, 2023. Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images Current Analysis At Any Cost—The War in Sudan and Europe’s Flawed Migration Policies The current conflict in Sudan reveals the deep flaws in EU border regimes. Parastou Hassouri • 9 min read
MER Article Extending the Borders of Europe European policies on refugees and asylum seekers are increasingly restrictive. Borders are effectively being pushed off-shore, extending the problems of border management as far south as possible. Aurélie Ponthieu explains the effects of these measures, including crowded refugee centers on the Itali Aurélie Ponthieu • 8 min read
MER Article Letter from Ellinikon On a bright and sunny day in early April, outside a terminal at what was once the Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, I listened as Javad, 16, told the story of the second refugee flight of his life. Javad (not his real name) is a member of the Hazara ethnic Parastou Hassouri • 5 min read
Current Analysis We Can—and Should—Do More to Help Syrian Refugees Imagine that 58 million Americans were streaming into Canada and Mexico, many with only a small satchel and the clothes on their backs. Picture another 102 million residents of the Eastern seaboard seeking refuge with relatives in the Midwest and West. That terrifying mental exercise gives a sense Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Crushing Repression of Eritrea's Citizens Is Driving Them Into Migrant Boats Abinet spent six years completing her national service in one of Eritrea’s ministries, but when she joined a banned Pentecostal church, she was arrested, interrogated, threatened, released and then shadowed in a clumsy attempt to identify other congregants. She arranged to be smuggled out of the cou Dan Connell • 4 min read
Current Analysis From Sinai to Lampedusa: An Eritrean Journey Two human tragedies will forever scar Eritreans’ memories of the past decade, during which hundreds of thousands fled repression and despair in their homeland to seek sanctuary in more open, democratic societies: the brutal kidnapping, torture and ransom of refugees in the Egyptian Sinai and the dro Dan Connell • 12 min read
MER Article Lampedusa More than 52,000 would-be migrants have landed on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa in 2011. Roughly half of the arrivals are young Tunisian men looking for job opportunities in Europe. Most of the others are Sahelians, sub-Saharan Africans or South Asians fleeing the violence in Libya. In many c Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 5 min read
MER Article Europe's Border Control with a Humanitarian Face “Suppose that Jordan decides to release its 2 million Iraqi refugees or that there is a regime change in Algeria,” hypothesized a risk analyst from Warsaw headquarters of Frontex, the European Union’s external border control agency, in 2008. Added his colleague, an operations specialist: “We have Cyprus, which has Greg Feldman • 10 min read
Current Analysis Turkey, Cyprus and the European Division More than years after the opening of the ceasefire line that divides Cyprus, the island is closer than ever to rupture. When the Green Line first opened in April 2003, there was an initial period of euphoria, as Cypriots flooded in both directions to visit homes and neighbors left unwillingly behind Rebecca Bryant • 12 min read
Current Analysis Grinding Palestine To Powder Secretary Rice’s recent Middle East tour concluded without any discussion of peace between Israel and Palestine. Unity talks between Fatah and Hamas have hit a standstill. In other words, the possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian political compromise appears bleaker than ever. Meanwhile, US and Euro Lori Allen • 4 min read
MER Article Storming the Fences "'Black locusts' are taking over Morocco!" So ran the September 12, 2005 headline of al-Shamal, an Arabic-language Tangier newspaper, describing the forays of masses of in-transit sub-Saharan Africans trying to scale the security fences separating Morocco from the Spanish-ruled enclaves of Ceuta and Elie Goldschmidt • 17 min read
Current Analysis Return of the Turkish “State of Exception” Diyarbakır, the political and cultural center of Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, displays its beauty in springtime. The surrounding plains and mountains, dusty and barren during the summer months, shine in shades of green and the rainbow colors of alpine flowers and herbs. Aro Kerem Öktem • 14 min read
