Responses to Mixed Migration in Europe: Implications for the Humanitarian Sector

This Network Paper seeks to disentangle and explain from a humanitarian perspective what has happened in Europe since 2015, and the potential implications for the humanitarian sector more widely. The paper starts with an overview of key events in the period 2015–17 (Chapter 1). Whilst the focus is on 2015 and early 2016, developments later in 2016 and during the first nine months of 2017 are also considered. The main elements of the European asylum and migration architecture which framed and shaped these developments are presented in Chapter 2, while Chapter 3 looks at the response in key individual states. The responsibilities of humanitarian agencies in this context are then considered in Chapter 4, together with the factors contributing to the slow and patchy response, and the reasons why so many refugees and irregular migrants in EU countries continue to endure conditions that are well below the minimum standards expected of a humanitarian response. Chapter 5 looks at the response by volunteers and grassroots groups from across Europe, exploring the challenges they have faced and the evolving nature of their relationship with formal humanitarian actors. The final section draws the key points together by asking what this experience tells us about the limits of humanitarian action as practiced by traditional humanitarian actors, and the role of civil society actors in the provision of assistance and protection.