Background and the theme of the conference

Since 2015, the European Union has been facing  significant flows of migrants and refugees,  which resulted in  what many denote  a migration crisis. This has raised questions concerning the EU´s asylum and migration policy, as well as relevant EU response mechanisms and their legal underpinnings. Globally however, Europe is just one of the regions of the world facing mass migration. The conference therefore aims    at exploring legal responses to forced mass migrations from a European and African perspective, as well as from the perspective of other regions.

The conference will address and investigate the following major issues:

• responding through law: mass influx of forced migrants as a legal challenge at  the regional and national level;
• the problem of mass influx in various regions of the world and the specificities of applicable legal frameworks with a particular focus on African and European (including Central European)  issues/developments;
• definition of basic international legal concepts and frameworks applicable in the context of mass migration.