Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Jeff Crisp Profile picture
Jeff Crisp
@JFCrisp
Tweeting on refugees, migration & borders. Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford & Chatham House, London; Former Head, Policy Development & Evaluation, UNHCR.
Jul 16 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
An interesting & welcome UNHCR position paper that summarizes the organization's thinking on the role of 'routes-based approaches' to mixed migratory movements.
My initial comments in this thread.
1/9
 . refworld.org/sites/default/…
Image While the paper is clearly an attempt to shift the Global North narrative on migration away from externalization, it doesn't directly refer to and critique the externalization approach, or point out its many negative consequences. Presumably an effort to keep states on board.
2/9
Dec 8, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The Global Refugee Forum is just a week away.
Here's a (somewhat random) selection of situations & issues that it might address.
1/6 Image Situations:
- mass deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan & Iran
- EU externalization in Mediterranean/Libya/North Africa
- UK-Rwanda refugee deportation deal
- Rohingya in Bangladesh: living conditions & pressures to return
- the Palestinian right to seek asylum
2/6
Dec 4, 2023 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Why exactly is the UK government so obsessed by the refugee deportation deal with Rwanda, despite its evident failings?
Some answers in this thread. Image In general terms, the government has convinced itself that the asylum issue is the one that can deliver it success (or at least minimize its losses) at the next general election.
Mar 25, 2022 • 23 tweets • 3 min read
A very long Tunisia update!
UNHCR Tunisia has kindly provided me with this statement concerning the situation of refugees in that country.
"Dear Mr. Crisp,
Please find below some information that I hope will help to clarify the situation." Image "Demonstrations occurring in front of UNHCR Zarzis office followed the announcement of a decrease in the level of financial assistance to be provided by UNHCR from the beginning of February, although the main request coming from demonstrators is 'evacuation' from Tunisia..."
May 10, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Here are a few quotes from UNHCR's new comment on the UK's asylum proposals: "Resettlement & other legal pathways cannot substitute
for or absolve a State of its obligations towards persons seeking asylum at its borders, including those who have arrived irregularly and spontaneously. This includes those arriving by boat."
Oct 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Wow. Over £300 million in funding! Thematic breakdown in terms of projects: Image
Oct 4, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Thread:
A non-exhaustive list of the methods states have used or proposed to block or deter the arrival of asylum seekers:

1. Impose visa controls on them
2. Impose passport controls on them
3. Deploy immigration officials at foreign ports/airports
(1/4) Image 4. Fine airlines/shipping companies bringing them in
5. Build a wall/fence to stop them crossing a border
6. Deploy the military, police & vigilantes to stop them crossing a border
7. Detain them at the border
8. Detain them on an island
9. Detain them on a boat
(2/4)
Sep 17, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
A bit more on aid agency branding.
In response to a tweet about the increasingly large agency logos seen on refugee tents (below), a couple of humanitarian workers suggested that this was (a) to improve security & prevent attacks; and (b) to limit their theft and/or sale. Image I don't dispute that this may well be part of the reason for using such large and obtrusive logos, and acknowledge that the internationally recognized Red Cross symbol has been used for many decades for protective and security purposes. Image
Sep 13, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Refugee voices from Moria: Image Image
Sep 11, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Priority: to publicize UNHCR
Not a priority: to publicize the fact that these people will almost certainly now be in an abusive detention centre
Even less of a prioriity: to publicize the EU's role in interception and forced returns Remind me to put this in my 'ethics of humanitarian communications' file.
Sep 7, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
From the Nobel Prize speech of the first High Commissioner for Refugees, 1922:
"The golden produce of the earth has been trampled under iron feet, the land lies in ruins everywhere, and the foundations of its communities are crumbling. People bow their heads in silent despair." Image "The soul of the world is mortally sick, its courage broken, its ideals tarnished, and the will to live gone; the horizon is hazy, hidden behind burning clouds of destruction, and faith in the dawn of mankind is no more."
Sep 7, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In this new article, Elena Haberski and I examine an issue that has been almost entirely neglected in the refugee literature: what happens to rejected asylum seekers in the Global South?
rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2020/09/07/the…
@Bur_ski Image There is scope for a lot more research, analysis and advocacy on this issue. Let us know if you are interested!
Sep 5, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Pictures from today's Guardian:
1. Sicily Image 2. The English Channel Image
Sep 3, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I'm all in favour of 'safe and legal routes' for refugees, as explained in this recent article:
moas.eu/saving-lives-a…
But as I pointed out five years ago, there's also a danger of this notion becoming a somewhat complacent slogan:
thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2015/… And for those who lament the fact that people can only claim refugee status once they have left their own country, well, the UN Refugee Convention describes a refugee as someone who "is outside the country of his nationality" and who is "unable or unwilling" to return to it.
Sep 1, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Great question Mike! Hypothesis:
While the political elites of some developing countries were sending their kids to universities in the US, UK, Canada etc., they espoused the idea that economic growth & national income could be boosted by getting poorer citizens to work abroad & send back remittances
Aug 29, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I just looked at the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and Global Compact on Migration (GCM). The word "disembarkation" does not appear in either of them. But the GCM does say "We commit to cooperate internationally to save lives & prevent migrant deaths & injuries through individual or joint search & rescue operations, assuming collective responsibility
to preserve the lives of all migrants, in accordance with international law."
Aug 27, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Well, my strong sense is that UNHCR is deliberately diluting the difference between 'IDPs' and 'refugees' so that it can rebrand itself as the 'UN agency for forced displacement'. I think it's called 'market share'. Not least because the UN has established a so-called 'High Level Panel' to look into this issue.
Let the turf wars commence!
Aug 12, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
UK:
Good to see the growing momentum behind the 'safe and legal routes to asylum' movement. But I fear that we will struggle to make much of an impact on government policy. Image 1. The whole notion of welcoming refugees is contrary to the culture of the government and its right-wing supporters, even if those refugees were to be pre-selected and were to arrive in an 'orderly' manner. (With the possible exception of Hong Kongers).
Aug 11, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Fleeing by boat.
an illustrated history:
The 1920s: Image The 1930s: Image
Aug 3, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Calling all refugee lawyers!
Help me with this one...
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights says that "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."
@ProfCCostello @DanGhez @profjmcadam @JC_Hathaway @tgammeltoft Image And a UNHCR policy statement says that "Persons rescued or intercepted at sea cannot be summarily turned back or otherwise returned to the country of departure, including in particular where to do so would deny them a fair opportunity to seek asylum."
refworld.org/pdfid/5a2e9efd…
Aug 2, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The last year in Libya: Image Image