"Secondary Movements of Refugees – The Case of Iraq"

Seminar with Abdullah Omar Yassen

Jean Monnet Chair on the New Pact on Asylum and Migration - EUMIGR

Since UNHCR Executive Committee adopted Conclusion No. 58 (XL) on the problem of refugees and asylum-seekers who move in an irregular manner from a country in which they had already found protection (1989), academic discussion has been concerned with the meaning of protection and the criteria that may define a country as safe. The European Union’s New Pact on Asylum and Migration, adopted in May 2024, grounds EU policies on migration and asylum on security and border control, in its goal to fight against irregular migration and the instrumentalization of migration, while at the same time it seeks to strengthen agreements with third countries and to redefine the safe third country concept in the Union’s Law.

Iraq hosts more than 300,000 refugees, 90% of whom live in Kurdistan, while more than one million Iraqis remain internally displaced persons as a result of conflict and persecution. Yet, Iraq is not party to UN refugee protection instruments and it does not have an asylum law. This paper will present research conducted with Syrian refugees in camps in Iraq, as well as the lack of an internal normative framework on protection, in order to analyse protection gaps and their impact on secondary movements. The paper will explore what a normative framework can offer in terms of durable solutions that may prevent secondary movements.

A.O. Yassen, “The Prospects for Durable Solutions for Syrian Refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” (2019) 38(4) Refugee Survey Quarterly 448–469
A.O. Yassen, “A new asylum law for the KRI and Iraq: Reality or wishful thinking?” (2023) 62(1) International Migration 168-183

PROFESSOR ABDULLAH OMAR YASSEN
 

(Associate Professor, Erbil Polytechnic University, Iraq)
Abdullah Omar Yassen is Associate Professor of International Law at Erbil Polytechnic University (Iraq) and Adjunct Professor in International Relations at Kurdistan-Hewler University (Erbil, Iraq). Professor Yassen has an LLB (Hons, Derby, UK), Master in International Law (LLM, Leicester, UK), and PhD in International Law (Newcastle, UK).

Professor Yassen has published extensively in International Law and Internationa Relations, including his monograph on refugee resettlement. He has participated in several international research projects, including REF-ARAB (University of Oslo) and the Global Governance Programme of the European University Institute (Florence, Italy).

Currently, he is Member of the research project BEYOND Advisory Board (University of Oslo). Professor Yassen has served as External Expert of the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA, formerly EASO, 2018); Adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council (2023-2024); and Consultant for IOM Division of Protection (2024). He has been awarded fully funded research stays at EURAC Research Institute (Bolzano, Italy, 2019), University of Oslo (Norway, 2022), and the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at University of Melbourne (Australia, 2024).