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Migration and Law Network 2016 Conference with QMUL

27 June 2016 - 28 June 2016

Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Venue: Mason Lecture Theatre, The Bancroft Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

MLN Conference 2016

Europe’s crisis: What future for immigration and asylum law and policy?

Background

The European Union is today faced by significant movements of refugees and migrants from places, which have experienced war or economic / environmental pressure. Combined with recent terrorist attacks, these developments have led some to doubt the viability of the EU migration framework. At the same time, they have led to arguments for new action by EU institutions and agencies, and by neighbouring countries. New forms of solidarity have been sought by some states and sections of public opinion, but rejected by others. Given the current sense of crisis, there are great uncertainties as to the future direction of the EU migration framework, as well as its content. Against this background, the conference will be addressing the main legal and policy aspects of the ongoing EU migration crisis.

Programme

Day one: Mason Lecture Theatre, Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

10.00 – 10.40 Registration

10.40 – 11.00 Welcome by host and Migration and Law Network: Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas (QMUL) and Professor Bernard Ryan (Leicester).

11.00 – 12.30 Panel 1: Securitising Migration Flows: Smuggling, Trafficking and Criminalisation

Chair: Ms Niovi Vavoula (QMUL)

  • Ms Simona Ragazzi (Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso): ‘New Experiences in Investigating and Prosecuting Migrant Smuggling: From the National Dimension to the European Perspective’.
  • Ms Chiara Ricci (Luxembourg): ‘Criminalising Solidarity? Smugglers, Migrants and Rescuers in the Reform of the “Facilitators” Package’.
  • Mr Herbert Rosenfeldt (University of Passau): ‘Trust is Good, External Border Control is Better: Towards a New Notion of EU Solidarity?’
  • Dr Kinga Janik (McGill): ‘Dealing with the Smuggling of Migrants as a Human Rights Issue: The “Extremely Vulnerable People” Paradigm’.

12.30 – 13.00 Lunch

13.00 – 14.30 Keynote Plenary: Europe’s Crisis: What Future for the Immigration and Asylum System?

Chair: Professor Elspeth Guild (QMUL)

  • Mr Mark Camilleri (European Asylum Support Office)
  • Dr Tineke Strik (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe)
  • Dr Madeline Garlick (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)
  • Mr Kris Pollet (European Council on Refugees and Exiles)
  • Mr Richard Ares Baumgartner (FRONTEX)

14.30 – 15.00 Coffee

15.00 – 16.30 Panel 2: ‘Boat Refugees’ and Migrants at Sea: Within or Without the Rule of Law?'

Chair: Dr Efthymios Papastavridis (Oxford / Athens / Thrace)

  • Mr Richard L Kilpatrick, Jr (Northeastern Illinois University) and Lt Adam Smith (US Navy): ‘The International Legal Obligation to Rescue During Mass Migration at Sea: Navigating the Sovereign and Commercial Dimensions of a Mediterranean Crisis’.
  • Mr Samuel Cogolati and Ms Nele Verlinden (KU Leuven): ‘Migrants in the Mediterranean: Protecting Human Rights at Sea’.
  • Dr Maria Varaki (Kadir Has University): ‘NATO and Europe’s Mixed Migration Crisis: A New Era or the End of the EU Migration and Policy Framework?’
  • Dr Ralph Wilde (UCL): ‘When Migrants Take Perilous Sea Crossings: The Causal Role of International Law’.

16.30 – 17.00 Coffee

17.00 – 18.30 Panel 3: A Union of Solidarity? Dublin, Relocation and Beyond

Chair: Dr Violeta Moreno-Lax (QMUL)

  • Ms Eleni Karageorgiou (Lund): ‘EU Asylum Crisis: Solidarity amongst Member States versus Solidarity between States and Refugees'.
  • Professor Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche (Lyon 3): ‘The Europe Without Qualities. “Hotspots” and the General Relativity of Fundamental Rights’
  • Professor Marcello Di Filippo (Pisa): ‘Dublin Re-imagined: Proposing a New Paradigm’
  • Mr Paolo Biondi (SAS): ‘Human Security and External Burden-Sharing: The European Approach to Refugee Protection between Past and Present’.

18.30 – 21.00 Conference dinner (Senior Common Room, Queen's Building)

Day two: Mason Lecture Theatre, Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

09.00 – 10.30 Panel 4: International Cooperation: EU-Turkey Relations and Remote Migration Control

Chair: Professor Bernard Ryan (Leicester)

  • Dr Gulay Icoz (KCL): ‘The Logic of Prioritising in Preference Formation in International Relations: The Case of EU’s Refugee Deal with Turkey’.
  • Professor Bulent Cicekli (Zirve University, Law Faculty) ‘The Role of Turkey in Controlling Migration Towards the EU: Solidarity on Burden Sharing or Burden Trading?’
  • Dr Meltem Ineli-Ciger (Suleyman Demirel University): ‘The EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan: Will it Work?’
  • Dr Daniela Vitiello (Roma Tre): ‘The Dialectics of EU-Turkey Cooperation on Migration and Asylum: Towards an “Australianisation” of the Common European Asylum System?’

10.30 – 11.00 Coffee

11.00 – 12.30 Panel 5: What Status and for Whom? Reconfiguring the Legal Position of Migrants

Chair: Dr Mariagiulia Giuffré (Edge Hill)

  • Dr Tania Kaiser (SOAS): ‘Reconceiving Refugee Resettlement’.
  • Dr Laura Van Waas (Tilburg): ‘What are the Implications of Statelessness for the Refugee Crisis in Europe and Vice Versa?’
  • Mr Carmine Conte (Middlesex): ‘What about Refugees with Disabilities? The Interplay between EU Asylum Law and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’.
  • Ms Joyce De Coninck (Ghent): ‘Incongruity in Accountability – Contesting EU De Facto Impunity for International Human Rights Violations in the Field of Asylum and Migration’.

12.30 – 13.00 Lunch

13.00 – 14.30 Panel 6: Politics and Policies in Times of Crisis

Chair: Dr Helena Wray (Middlesex)

  • Mr Maciej Fagasinksi (Refugee.pl Foundation Poland): ‘Visegrad Countries: A Trojan Horse of the Common EU Solution to the Mass Influx of Refugees and Persons in Need of International Protection?’
  • Dr Vladislava Stoyanova (Lund): ‘Recasting Refugee Protection in Bulgaria and the Good and Bad about EU Asylum Law’.
  • Ms Giulia Vicini (Milan/Paris I): ‘The EU Refugee Crisis: The End of the Harmonization Approach?’
  • Dr Francesco Cherubini (Luiss): ‘Revision of EU Competences on Asylum as a Vector of Solidarity’.

14.30 – 15.00 Coffee

15.00 – 16.30 Panel 7: Lessons for Europe: Cross-Regional Experiences

Chair: Professor Helene Lambert (Westminster)

  • Ms Sabrineh Ardalan (Harvard): ‘Morocco as Gatekeeper and Parallelisms with the US/Mexico Border Experience’.
  • Ms Linda Kirk (ANU): ‘Lessons from Down Under: The “Outsourcing” of Australia’s International Refugee and Human Rights Obligations to Nauru'
  • Professor Susan Kneebone (Melbourne): ‘Lessons from Southeast Asia for the European Union?'
  • Dr Micaela Malena and Mr Brian Wei (UNHCR/WFP): ‘The EU’s Response to Refugee Influxes and the Ugandan Model of Refugee Protection: Facts for Thought’.

16.30 – 16.45 Coffee

16.45 – 18.15 Closing Session: Wider Reflections on the Migration Crisis

Chair: Dr Prakash Shah (QMUL)

  • Dr Dallal Stevens (Warwick): ‘EU Asylum Law in “Crisis” or Catalyst for Necessary Change?’
  • Dr Daniel Ghezelbash (Macquarie University): 'Learning from History: Legal Transfers of Restrictive Immigration Laws'.
  • Professor Dora Kostakopoulou (Warwick): 'Family Reunification in the EU and the Plight of Syrian Refugees'.
  • Professor Bernard Ryan (Leicester): ‘EU and International Law and the Migration Crisis: On the Road to Where?’

18.15 – 18.30 Closing remarks and farewell by conveners: Dr Violeta Moreno-Lax (QMUL).

Organisers

The 2016 conference is held in association with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), with the support of the Centre for Culture and Law (GLOCUL) and the Centre for European and International Legal Affairs (CEILA), and is organised by:

  • Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas, Head of Law Department, Queen Mary
  • Professor Elspeth Guild, Jean Monnet Professor, Queen Mary and Radboud University, Netherlands
  • Professor Bernard Ryan, University of Leicester
  • Dr Prakash Shah, School of Law, Queen Mary
  • Dr Violeta Moreno-Lax, School of Law, Queen Mary
  • Niovi Vavoula, School of Law, Queen Mary.

THE MIGRATION AND LAW NETWORK

The Migration and Law Network was set up in 2007 to promote migration law as a subject within United Kingdom universities. It is overseen by a steering committee of academics and other professionals in the immigration law field. It runs the Migration and Law mailing list for those who work in the field, for which subscription requests may be made at their website. Further information about the network or mailing list may be obtained from the network’s co-chairs, Professor Bernard Ryan: bernard.ryan@le.ac.uk and Dr Prakash Shah: prakash.shah@qmul.ac.uk.

Directions

For directions to the venue, please refer to the map.

How to book

Registration for this event has now closed. 

Contact

For more information on this event, please email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk.

Photography, video and audio recording

School of Law events may be photographed or video and audio recorded. These materials will be used for internal and external promotional purposes only by Queen Mary University of London. If you object to appearing in the photographs, please let our photographer know on the day. Alternatively you can email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk in advance of the event that you are attending.

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