Paper details

Paper authors	Emma Empociello
In panel on	“Humanitarian borders” between care and control
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

In this paper, I intend to decompartmentalise research done on migration in its “North-South” duality, by offering a comparative analysis of two case studies: Jordan and Greece.
I investigate how humanitarian actors in these borderlands participate in reinforcing the process of containment of displaced people. I define borderlands as the ones experienced by asylum seekers, the border being both the ‘line in the sand’ and the frontier they experience in camps.
First, in both cases, the choice and effectiveness of the humanitarian response are constrained within states and donor’s framework. Second, their action is also intertwined with the hand that controls, as their access to asylum seekers is dictated by the military. Finally, by questioning humanitarianism, I demonstrate how the humanitarian practices participate in making asylum seekers movement constrained.
On the Jordanian side, the transnational humanitarian actors reinforced a discourse leading to refoulement. By assisting the population of the camp of Rukban, with cross-border activities, and even by using cranes to send aid, they participated in making the containment at the Jordanian border effective. In Greece, restrictions imposed volunteers without expertise on issues such as the legal aid, putting asylum seekers at risk in terms of protection.
Comparing these case studies helps to better understand a global tendency on migration, not only made by the EU as externalisation scholars would argue, but also by the international humanitarian community.

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