Political Geographies of ‘The List’: a mechanism of control over migrant mobility
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Keywords: informal mobility, refugees, Balkan Route, migration
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Jessica Collins, Macquarie University
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Abstract
The 2015 ‘European Refugee Crisis’ saw an unprecedented number of refugees enter Europe via an humanitarian corridor known as the ‘Balkan Route’. When this corridor closed in March 2016, however, refugees continued to travel along the Route to reach Western Europe via informal border crossings. This paper examines a document that came into existence between the Serbian and Hungarian authorities to manage mobility across their shared border. This document was known as ‘The List’. It was the one legal pathway to the EU available to refugees based in Serbia from 2016 until March 2020. The management of this document has often evaded scholars. This paper aims to clarify its role in the wider context of migration management along this informal refugee corridor. Arguably, this document has acted as a mechanism of both exploitation and control by disrupting refugee mobility and causing wait periods of up to several years in Serbia before crossing the Hungarian border. This was a lengthy detour to what would usually be considered typical along the Route. However, waiting for the List was a much safer option for families or the sick. While waiting for their names to be called, refugees often remained in Serbia’s institutional camps, until they eventually crossed the border or gave up hope and attempted informal border crossings with the help of smugglers. This paper looks at how we can understand a document that is no longer in existence and yet implicated the journey of thousands of refugees passing through the Route.
Political Geographies of ‘The List’: a mechanism of control over migrant mobility
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Paper Abstract