(11) The impacts of war and disaster: the continuum of violence along forced migrant routes. Can refugee journeys be safer?, Dr. Sandra Pertek

Dr Sandra Iman Pertek
University of Birmingham
United Kingdom
Email: s.m.pertek.1@bham.ac.uk

DOI: 10.47556/J.WJEMSD.19.3-4.2023.11

Abstract: The number of forcibly displaced people reached unprecedented scale, over 100 million people. Many are subjected to the continuum of violence and exploitation along forced migration routes. Migration processes are increasingly feminised – more and more women and children undertake dangerous refugee journeys due to conflict and war, climate emergencies and economic inequalities. Women and girls often travel alone, without male relatives and financial resources. With ruptured social networks, lack of language skills and documentation, they face multiple risks in places of transit and refuge. Despite ongoing humanitarian efforts to tackle protection concerns, the scale of recent forced displacement has not been matched with the appropriate resources, capacity and political will to protect displaced women’s dignity and rights. Media outlets continue to report missing migrants and deaths in treacherous sea crossings in the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel, to name a few. This paper explores the experiences of forced migrant journeys in several settings, drawing on the empirical data collected with 70 displaced persons in Turkey, Tunisia and Ukraine. It identifies the refugee journey as a form of violence itself and proposes recommendations for innovative solutions needed to prevent death and the continuum of violence across forced migrant routes. Key recommendations focus on the mobile service delivery and forced migration route-based humanitarian programmes as good practices to respond to humanitarian crisis of people on the move along forced migration routes. While no one entity is responsible for the safety of people on the move, the paper suggests a shared accountability for the protection of displaced persons.