The IOM’s Missing Migrants Project: The Global Authority on Border Deaths

Tamimi, Yussef Al; Cuttitta, Paolo

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-32976-1_9

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The data collection and profiling of migrants respond to different needs of the EU and IOM: making transit movements ‘knowable’ and therefore ‘governable’ (Vaughan-Williams 2015: 2) through targeted intervention; identifying countries to which migrants can be returned; reproducing the transit state label that justifies the existence of the IOM and creates the need for its humanitarian interventions (Ashutosh & Mountz 2011; Dini 2018; Fine 2018; Al Tamimi et al 2020); and promoting a ‘border spectacle’ (De Genova 2013) and a ‘culture of immobility’ (Pécoud 2010) through awareness-raising and information campaigns in which the risks of migration are mainly used as arguments to discourage migrants from attempting to enter the EU irregularly (Heller 2014; Bartels 2017; Kluczewska 2020). In this regard, IOM Niger conducts ‘regular outreach activities’ in Agadez, Arlit, Dirkou and Niamey, with ‘over 50 community mobilisers’ that ‘sensitise migrants and local communities about irregular migration and its alternatives [voluntary repatriation]’ (IOM Official 2020 Int.).…”

Section: The Iom and Humanitarian Borderwork In Nigermentioning

confidence: 99%

Externalising migration control in Niger: the humanitarian–security nexus and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

de Blasis,

Pitzalis

2023

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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The article investigates the role of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the global migration regime against the backdrop of the European Union (EU) border externalisation process in Niger. Over the last few years, UN agencies have been considered an essential component of the EU strategy to prevent irregular migrants from reaching Europe. Drawing on qualitative research and ethnographic fieldwork, combining empirical observation with critical analysis, we explore the ‘humanitarian–security nexus’ by focusing on the IOM's ‘humanitarian borderwork’ under the financial umbrella of the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (ETFA). While the results of purely securitarian measures in Niger may have been ‘disappointing’, the outsourcing of migration management through IOM balances the interests of the Nigerien government and the EU. By focusing on IOM humanitarian operations and assisted voluntary returns and reintegration (AVRR) programmes, the article shows the further expansion of European humanitarian borders into the heart of the Sahel, highlighting new interdiction practices, hidden forms of deportation, side effects and contestation from below.

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Section: The Iom and Humanitarian Borderwork In Nigermentioning

confidence: 99%

Externalising migration control in Niger: the humanitarian–security nexus and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

de Blasis,

Pitzalis

2023

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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“…IOM’s Missing Migrants project fits into this context. Al Tamimi, Cuttitta, and Last (in press) indicate that the practice of counting deaths by IOM staff had begun incrementally: it is only in response to the 2013 shipwrecks that IOM as an institution formalized this project. 17 Media and political attention was at their height and IOM decided to position itself on this issue by constituting its own list of deaths.…”

Section: The Humanitarianization Of Borders and The (Inter)governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…IOM’s influence and resources, coupled with its claim to constitute the “only existing global database on migrant deaths,” 25 directly threatens NGOs’ capacity to maintain this activity. As Al Tamimi et al (in press) write,in 2015, UNITED suffered a significant reduction in its core funding which supported the employees working on the List of Deaths. Since 2016, two other news-sourced databases that pre-dated MMP (the Migrants Files and the Fortress Europe blog) have stopped being updated.…”

Section: The Humanitarianization Of Borders and The (Inter)governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Counting Migrants’ Deaths at the Border: From Civil Society Counterstatistics to (Inter)Governmental Recuperation

Heller

Pécoud

2019

American Behavioral Scientist

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Migrant deaths in border-zones have become a major social and political issue, especially in the context of the Euro-Mediterranean refugee/migrant crisis. While media, activists, and policy makers often mention precise figures regarding the number of deaths, little is known about the production of statistical data on this topic. This article explores the politics of counting migrant deaths in Europe. This statistical activity was initiated in the 1990s by civil society organizations with the purpose of shedding light on the deadly consequences of “Fortress Europe” and of challenging states’ control-oriented political strategies. In 2013, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) started to count migrants’ deaths: while this intergovernmental organization seems to follow up on civil society initiatives, it actually works with different political objectives. Rather than criticizing states, IOM aims at conciliating the control of irregular migration with the prevention of deaths. IOM’s statistics on border deaths illustrate the humanitarianization of the border, as denunciation of migrants’ deaths and life-saving activities become integrated in border management and border control. In producing statistics on border deaths, IOM depoliticizes this data and challenges the critical framework that was central to earlier civil society initiatives. Finally, the article explores ways in which statistics on border deaths are being repoliticized to challenge European states’ immigration policies.

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Possible Futures? The New ‘UN Migration Agency’ and the Shifting Global Order

Geiger

2020

The International Organization for Migration

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The IOM’s Missing Migrants Project: The Global Authority on Border Deaths

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

Externalising migration control in Niger: the humanitarian–security nexus and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Externalising migration control in Niger: the humanitarian–security nexus and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Counting Migrants’ Deaths at the Border: From Civil Society Counterstatistics to (Inter)Governmental Recuperation

Possible Futures? The New ‘UN Migration Agency’ and the Shifting Global Order

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