webinar register page

Join Oxfam and MSF for a discussion on Europe’s refugee and migration response.

A virtual event with a keynote address from award-winning journalist and photographer Sally Hayden, author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route, followed by an expert panel chaired by Dr Caitriona Dowd, Assistant Professor in Security Studies, DCU and including a representative from 'Refugees in Libya', Dr Aideen Elliott, Refugee and Migration Policy Coordinator, Oxfam Ireland & Dr. Jérôme Tubiana, Libya Advocacy Manager with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

In recent weeks, we have witnessed an historic response from Ireland and the EU to the millions of people forced to flee the conflict in Ukraine. We have been reminded of how important international protection is, how vital it is that people can travel to safety freely, without being pushed back into danger.

The response to the crisis in Ukraine is a welcome one and yet it highlights a stark and troubling contrast in the way different groups of refugees are treated by EU leaders.

There are almost no safe routes to come to the EU to seek international protection and the EU has stopped its search and rescue operations leaving it to NGOs to save lives in the Mediterranean. Across the EU, people forced to flee continue to suffer as a result of policies and procedures that are illegal under EU and international law. Arriving traumatised by what they left behind as well as the journey to safety, people then face violent pushbacks at EU borders, are denied their right to seek asylum for unfounded reasons or are left to languish in inhumane conditions in camps or detention centres. Sally Hayden’s investigative reporting helps to shine a light on this reality.

Our panel will bear witness to these experiences and connect them to EU policies, discussing how the EU can become a place where all those fleeing are accommodated in a safe and dignified manner, no matter where they come from, and people in danger of drowning are rescued from our waters.

May 12, 2022 06:00 PM in Dublin