The Refugee Project Maastricht, the Maastricht Young Academy (MYA), the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration, and Development (MACIMIDE), UNSA Maastricht and UNU-MERIT are organizing the Maastricht Migration Lecture Series. The upcoming lecture on Migration in Libya: From transit route to containment will take place on 30 September.

With this lecture series, the Refugee Project Maastricht, the Maastricht Young Academy (MYA), the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration, and Development (MACIMIDE), UNSA Maastricht and UNU-MERIT aim to provide an objective picture on the topic of migration and offer new insights. To do so, different aspects around migration are analyzed and different perspectives are given on how states might deal with the influx of refugees in the future. In a number of lectures, experts will talk about topics such as myths and misconceptions in the area of migration, climate change, and migration, dealing with high displacement, gender and migration, citizenship, EU Asylum Law, and more.

The lecture ‘Migration in Libya: From transit route to containment’ will focus on African and Middle Eastern migration flows to Libya and how the country’s posture toward these migrants have changed dramatically since the 2011 fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. While Libya once was a destination for foreign workers drawn by a strong economy, post-civil war, migrants have used the country as a transit point to set off for Europe—though as European borders have hardened since the 2015-16 migration crisis, many have been stranded and contained in Libya through the EU's external action policies. At present, a human rights crisis is enduring in Libya for migrants. This presentation will contextualize the changing situation in Libya for migrants from 2011 to the present. The presentation is informed by original interviews conducted with Nigerian and Eritrean migrants that travelled through Libya from 2014-2016 and will demonstrate the different situations faced by migrants in Libya.

Please sign up here if you want the lecture. 
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About Dr. Katie Kuschminder 
Dr. Katie Kuschminder is an Assistant Professor at UNU-MERIT / Maastricht University. Katie's main research interests are in the areas of return and reintegration, irregular migrants journeys and migration governance. Katie has led migration projects for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, German Development Cooperation, ILO, IOM, NWO and WODC. Currently, she is a Work-Package Lead on the H2020 Admigov project. In 2016 she was awarded a Rubicon Grant from the NWO and completed a two-year fellowship at the European University Institute.