Presenting At IASFM 2011

At this year’s International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference in Kampala, Integrity’s resident refugee specialist Martine Zeuthen presented a paper on ‘Governing Urban Migrants in Damascus’. The conference was visited by up to 500 academics, researchers, consultants, NGO workers and refugee representatives.

Martine’s presentation was based on earlier research conducted in and around the Palestinian and Iraqi refugee areas in the suburbs of Damascus. It discussed the challenges to NGOs and international organisations in providing protection and assistance in an authoritarian regime. How the current situation in Syria might impact upon the refugees remained unclear but the security crackdown on protests in Damascus was particularly concentrated on those suburban areas.