Middle East & North Africa
Middle East & North Africa
Recent Activity
Recent Activity
A delegation of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) visited Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq in late November to discuss the humanitarian crisis with refugees, officials from host and donor governments, representatives of international humanitarian organizations and local nongovernmental agencies; and to get a firsthand look at the work of IRC partners and staff who are directly involved in providing assistance to the refugees and to Syrians trapped inside the country.
More than 465,800 Syrians were registered as refugees during 2012 or were awaiting assistance, and another 2 million Syrians were internally displaced as a result of the prolonged armed conflict. On the African continent, difficult humanitarian situations also were unfolding.
This issue brief examines Asian labor migration to the Middle East—a region distinguished by its major dependence on migrant workers, the overwhelming majority from Asia. The author focuses on the role of private recruiting agencies as key facilitators of temporary labor migration and perpetrators of exploitative practices.
A discussion with Dr. Noppawan Tanpipat, Vice President, National Science and Technology Development Agency; Frank Laczko, Head, Migration Research Division, IOM; Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias, Regional Research Officer, IOM, and Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI); and Kathleen Newland, Director of Migrants, Migration, and Development, Migration Policy Institute (MPI).
This brief provides a background on the displacement and evacuation of migrant workers caught in the Libyan civil war. It highlights questions raised as a result of this crisis regarding the response of the international community, discusses lessons learned from the Libyan experience, and identifies policy recommendations for addressing the protection needs of labor migrants during humanitarian crises.
This discussion highlights the best practices and experiences of different countries in engaging and maximizing the contributions that diasporas can and do make to the development of their country of origin, and more broadly the experience of policymakers in both sending and receiving countries and the related challenges and opportunities they face.
This practical handbook highlights policies and programs that can magnify the resources, both human and financial, that emigrants and their descendants contribute to development. It gives concrete examples of policies and programs that have been effective, and pulls out both useful lessons and common challenges associated with the topics at hand.