SuperCamp – Genealogies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East (2019-2022)

In 2015, more than one million migrants reached Europe during the so-called “Mediterranean refugee crisis.” In response, the EU and Schengen countries instituted a new policy of regional containment from March 2016. The policy specifically aimed to return refugees landing in Greece following irregular migration through Turkey. Border patrols in the Mediterranean increased and surveillance intensified. The EU and Schengen countries thus established a “catch basin” for refugees and migrants in the Middle East.

This project examines the implications of this for the host countries in the Middle East and hypothesises that the Middle East takes on features of what we call a “SuperCamp” – an area where migrants are not so much hosted as being held hostage.

The project aims to build a new understanding of the regional and global forces of humanitarian containment, captured in the term ‘SuperCamp.’ The project moves beyond the traditional analysis that is centred on the nation state to encompass sites, systems, and sources of containment. In so doing, it addresses one of the most pressing problems facing nation states: the movement of refugees and migrants from the global south to the global north. By reflecting on the positionality of the migrants in the “south” and the perceived threat to the “affluent north,” the project provides a more nuanced understanding of the historical and bio-political sources of containment. The project thus focuses on the consequences of displacement.

Coordinateur Ifpo : K. Doraï, projet porté par le CMI