Protection of refugees and migrants in the era of the global compacts

Abstract

This essay examines the decision of States to affirm the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in 2018, in light of the normative and institutional frameworks for refugees and migrants which underpin them, and the challenges that each compact respectively seeks to address. It details how the GCR seeks to reinforce international protection for refugees and the GCM aims for strengthened protection for the rights of migrants, as well as the scope for their application together to obviate protection gaps, including in the context of mixed movements. To illustrate this, the essay explores the potential application of the GCR and GCM to a specific mixed movement situation in the Mediterranean region. It outlines the potential of the compacts to provide a firmer basis for States and other actors to address challenges around large-scale arrivals and identification of those in need of international protection, while promoting respect in practice for the rights of all persons on the move in accordance with international law.

Keywords:

• Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
• Global Compact on Refugees
• international protection
• migrant
• mixed movements
• protection
• refugee

Acknowledgement

The opinions expressed in this essay are those of the authors and do not represent the positions of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the United Nations.

Notes

1 152 States voted in favour, and five against, while 12 abstained and 24 did not vote (UN News 2018).

2 A number of countries have in place administrative or legislative mechanisms for regularizing the stay of persons who are not formally recognized as refugees, but for whom return is not possible or advisable for a variety of reasons. It is a positive way of responding pragmatically to certain international protection needs. See https://www.unhcr.org/excom/standcom/3ae68d140/complementary-forms-protection-nature-relationship-international-refugee.html; also at https://academic.oup.com/rsq/article/19/4/163/1562948.

3 In the case of UNHCR, operational engagement in mixed movements has been informed for over a decade by the 10 Point Plan (10PP) (UNHCR 2016a). Some of the suggested approaches contained in this essay that would bring together the GCR and the GCM draw on the logic of the 10PP, which provides a blueprint for protection and assistance to those travelling as part of mixed movements in a holistic way, from arrival through to solutions.

4 Some parts of the “areas in need of support” set out in Part III.B of the GCR were specifically requested to be made available to “transit” countries impacted by mixed movements. The language in relevant sections deliberately refers to “concerned States” rather than “host States” to allow for this possibility – particularly sections under “Reception and admission” (Part III.B.1), which may apply before international protection needs have been identified or status has been determined.