Forced Migration Online: Blog

This podcast was recorded as part of the Oxfam Archive Oral History project.

It features an interview with Maurice Herson, Editor of Forced Migration Review and previously Deputy Humanitarian Director and Head of Humanitarian Programme Advisory Team at Oxfam.

‘Rwanda and the Great Lakes: A Personal View from the Oxfam Archive” is the second of a two-part series. In this recording, Maurice speaks about the Great Lakes emergency and the Rwanda genocide.

The first podcast focused on Maurice’s career in Sudan in the 1980s.

• Listen to the podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

Forced Migration Online has recently published a new resource summary, focusing on Angola.

The Republic of Angola is on the west coast of south-central Africa, and has an estimated population of around 13 million people. Wealthy in natural resources, it is now one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, fuelled mainly by its oil production.

Despite this apparent wealth however, the country faces enormous socio-economic problems. These are the product of a 27-year long civil war, which raged from 1975 to 2002 between the governing MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). At the height of the civil war, it is estimated that over 4 million people were displaced.

All our summaries provide links to key resources, websites and documents exploring contemporary debate on on key issues, in forced migration as well as links to wider issues concerned with human rights and displacement.

Our full collection of resource summaries, focusing on specific regions and themes, can be accessed from the links below.

• Angola resource summary
• Regional Resource Summaries
• Thematic Resource Summaries

Forced Migration Online has recently published a new resource summary, focusing on Algeria.

The summary provides an outline of present and historical causes of forced migration within Algeria. It also gives an overview of Algeria’s relationship to various international refugee conventions and its role as host to several thousand refugees including the Sahrawi, as well as refugees from Palestine and Sub-Saharan Africa.

All our summaries provide links to key resources, websites and documents exploring contemporary debate on on key issues, in forced migration as well as links to wider issues concerned with human rights and displacement. Our full collection of resource summaries, focusing on specific regions and themes, can be accessed from the links below.

• Algeria resource summary
• Regional Resource Summaries
• Thematic Resource Summaries

We are pleased to announce that the ‘photo gallery’ section of Forced Migration Online has been re-launched. In addition to enjoying an improved layout when browsing individual albums, users will also be able to search our full database of photographs.

There are now over 600 photographs in the FMO image database, including a new album of photos on the topic of “Self-Settled and Settlement Refugees in Uganda” (© Ayla Bonfiglio, 2008).

Uganda is one of the few countries to allow refugees to either settle themselves within the national population, or to live in a refugee settlement. This collection of photographs was taken during a comparative study on self-reliance among refugees from these two settlement contexts.

If you have a collection of photographs relating to forced migration and are interested in submitting them for inclusion on FMO please visit our submissions page.

• FMO photo gallery
• New album: Self-settled and settlement refugees in Uganda

FMO has launched the first of a series of podcasts recorded at the Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis conference, held by the Refugee Studies Centre (in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group) between 22th and 24th September 2009 at Harris Manchester College, Oxford. The opening address was given by Erika Feller, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, UNHCR. Further details about the conference can be accessed on the event page.

• Podcast
• Subscribe via iTunes

One year on from the war between Georgia and the Russian Federation, thousands of civilians remain stranded from their homes with little prospect of imminent return. An estimated 30,000 people are displaced according to a new Amnesty International report released August 7th. Civilians continue to endure human rights violations and remain directly affected by the aftermath of the conflict.

• Amnesty International Report ‘Civilians in the Aftermath of War: The Georgia-Russia Conflict One Year On’
• Oxfam, Georgia Crisis – One year on
• BBC New story ‘Geneva Conventions’ struggle for respect’

The Refugee Studies Centre, in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute, is organising an international conference on Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World (22-24 September).

• Conference
• Call for Papers (PDF file)

Martin Bell is interviewed by Andy Brown, Unicef UK. Martin Bell, former BBC war correspondent, is UNICEF UK’s Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies. In this interview he reflects on his visit to Puntland province, Somalia in May 2009 where the greatest concentration of IDPs displaced by the ongoing conflict are located. More than 50 per cent of Somalia’s population is under the age of 18 and Bell describes UNICEF’s work helping conflict affected and displaced children. Security constraints are such that UNICEF is one of the few humanitarian agencies currently operational in Somalia.

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• Bearing witness: Martin Bell in Somalia