Hassen Boubakri (President of CeTuMA - Centre of Tunis for Migration and Asylum)

Date: May 2nd 2019

Time: 18:30 - 20:30

Place: IEMed (Carrer Girona, 20, Barcelona)

Title: Crisis of States, Migration Crisis: The Maghreb region and its Sub-Saharan and European neighborhoods face a troubled context.

Abstract: This conference will focus on the consequences of the Arab uprisings on migratory flows between the Maghreb area, on the one hand and, on the other, its sub-Saharan neighborhoods in the South and Europe in the North.

The scale of the flows is unprecedented: in 11 years (2008-2018), 2,4 millions of landings have been detected at the European Mediterranean costs. This number has multiplied by 5 in a few years: from 482300 in a first period (2008-2013) to 2 436 000 during a second period (2014-2018). The sea routes have changed a lot in the three Mediterranean basins: 60% of landings were on the oriental Euro Mediterranean costs, 34% on the Central European coasts (Italy, mainly) and 6% on the occidental coasts (Spain, mainly).

The Syrian civil war has, since 2011, forced half of the Syrian population (12/23 million) to flee: half have fled abroad while the other half are internally displaced (or internally displaced). If ¾ of these refugees have remained in the immediate vicinity of Syria (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan), more than 1 million have crossed to Europe and in particular to Germany.

Civil wars, instability, and the emergence of terrorism on the South Bank of the Sahara, in the Sahel countries (South Sudan, Central African Republic, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso), added to deeper and more structural causes such as poverty, underdevelopment and poor governance, pushed hundreds of thousands of Sub-Saharan nationals to move to other more stable countries in the immediate neighborhood, or to the Maghreb area’s transit countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and, above all, Libya.

Libya, without a stable government or unified security forces, has become since 2011, and especially since the resumption of the civil war in 2014, and 2019, the platform of smuggling of migrants and human trafficking, driven by criminal networks from South Sahara to Libya and, then, to Italian coasts.

Since some years, the EU has not stopped multiplying declarations, communications, agendas and action plans, all aimed at limiting arrivals in Europe and outsourcing controls. The result is the disruption of humanitarian rescue missions in the Mediterranean, the establishment of European funds to "help" the North African and Sub Saharan countries that pledge to block the flow of irregular migrants to Europe, the financing United Nations organizations for the repatriation of stranded migrants in North Africa.

As a transit and irregular departure areas, the Maghreb and Subsaharan Africa are targeted by these policies.

Bio: Senior Professor Doctor of Geography and research supervisor of PhD’s at the Universities of Sousse, Sfax and Tunis (Tunisia). He has a long and constant (more than 25 years) experience with teaching, research, participation and/or leading of research projects and programs in different migration fields. He was the expert in charge of the coordination and facilitation of the workshop “Migration and Mobility” in the Framework of the “2017 Forum of EU-Civil Society Organizations Neighborhood South” in Tunis (April 2017) and Brussels (July 2017); member of the panel of experts engaged by the European Commission for the evaluation of research programs (FP7 and FP6) in the field of migration topics; Research Coordinator for Tunisia of MICIC program; Tunisia report: “The implications of the Libyan crisis: How Tunisia hosts the migrants fleeing Libya since 2011?” ICMPD, UNHCR & IOM. Vienna. 60 p. 2017; Coordinator for Tunisia (National Observatory of Youth) of the 2014-2017 research program: "POWER2YOUTH" (www.power2youth.eu). He was Visiting Professor at TAPRI (Tampere Peace Research Institute) in 2018, at University Ça Foscari of Venice/Italy (2002-2018), University of Nice Antipolis/France (2015), University Agha Khan/London/UK (2008) and University Poitiers/France (1999). He was also research coordinator (1999-2002) of an international program with an inter-disciplinary team, titled “Le Maghreb et les nouvelles configurations migratoires” (The Maghreb area and its new migratory patterns) carried out in the framework of the IRMC (Institut de Recherche sur la Maghreb Contemporain). He is Chairman of the Centre of Tunis for Migration and Asylum (CeTuMA) (Scientific NGO).

Recommended Readings:

• 2018. Le prisme migratoire dans les relations futures entre le Maghreb et le reste de l’Afrique. In « Le partenariat Afrique-Europe en quête de sens ». Editeurs : Larbi Jaidi & Ivan Martin. OCP Policy Center. 314 p.
• 2017. MIGRANTS IN COUNTRIES IN CRISIS. Libya Case Study. An Unending Crisis – Responses of Migrants, States and Organisations to the 2011 Libya Crisis. ICMPD. 96 p.
• Boubakri, Hassen & El Karoui, Delphine. 2016. « Les migrations en Afrique du Nord et au Moyen Orient : le temps des révolutions ». Editorial: In Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales (REMI). N° 3-4/Vol 31. 2015. (pp. 7-15).
• 2016. Migrations et asile en Tunisie depuis 2011: vers de nouvelles figures migratoires? In Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales (REMI). N° 3-4/Vol 31. 2015. (pp. 17-37).

For the upcoming GRITIM-UPF seminars, please visit this link.