UNHCR Protection Manual - Related sources

This paper examines the mixed movement of people that is currently taking place between the East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region to the southern part of the continent. This paper opens with a global perspective on these issues, defining the notion of mixed movements and explaining why in recent years it has attracted growing attention from the international community. The paper then goes on to provide an account of the mixed movements that are currently taking place to and within Southern Africa. It also identifies some of the key policy and operational issues arising from this phenomenon, and examines some recent approaches and initiatives that have been taken in relation to this matter.

This paper talks about UNHCR's engagement in broader migration discourse and asylum-migration nexus. It concludes that UNHCR is currently engaged in a difficult balancing act. On one hand, the organization recognizes the need to underline the distinctive status, rights and obligations of refugees, and is sensitive to charges that it wishes to extend its mandate to broader migration issues that lie beyond its legitimate concern. At the same time, UNHCR is aware that human mobility is growing in scope, scale and complexity, and acknowledges that other stakeholders, especially states, increasingly regard the movement of refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants as part of a single (and often unwanted) phenomenon.