A rising number of migrants are ‘stranded’ in so-called ‘transit zones’ across Europe. Transit zones are controlled border spaces where people are physically present but legally and/or administratively prevented from moving onwards or legally residing in the host state. Migrants dwelling in these zones have various legal statuses and have made complex, fragmented journeys. One thing they seem to share, though, is that they can neither stay nor move. Most governments try to deter migrants from dwelling in these transit zones, by putting in place a series of repressive policies, e.g. by evicting camps and destroying tents and shelters. This does not effectively deter migrants, but pushes them into ever more destitute living conditions. In response, citizen collectives and established NGOs provide direct humanitarian aid and try to put pressure on their governments, to change migrants’ living conditions within these transit zones. They do so by means of (combinations of) different advocacy strategies, ranging from public awareness raising, the monitoring and reporting publication of human rights violations, to direct policy dialogues and (strategic) litigation (taking rights violations to the courts).

This FWO funded research project (2023-2027) investigated humanitarian crises in transit zones and the advocacy strategies developed to try and tackle them. It looked into two European transit zones, namely Brussels and the Franco-British border zone (starting from Dunkirk-Calais to Cherbourg).  These transit zones are connected: they are places from where migrants have tried to reach the United Kingdom to apply for international protection. Migrants make these dangerous crossings due to extremely restricted visa policies, which make that people from conflict-affected countries lack safe and legal passages to the U.K.. In response to these crossings the U.K. has sought to discourage migrants’ presence at the border, investing millions of pounds in its securitization, in close collaboration with France. This policy has not solved humanitarian crises at the border but on the contrary has increased them, rendering migrants more vulnerable.

From its inception, the research project has had a double goal of (1) advancing academic knowledge on advocacy strategies by grassroots’ humanitarian actors and NGOs for migrants’ rights and (2) identifying good practices with regards to the use of different advocacy methods and strategies, with the objective of strengthening grassroots’ humanitarian actors’ positions vis-à-vis the public authorities.  Understanding and reinforcing the advocacy capacities of civil society actors has become ever more pertinent in a context of shrinking civil space in Europe generally, and with regards to human rights defenders of migrants’ and refugees’ rights particularly.

Grassroots’ humanitarian actors have to work in increasingly difficult circumstances, across Europe. Their work is being criminalized and obstructed. The aid they provide is framed by political actors as creating ‘pull effects’, this framing renders invisible the actual reasons why migrants end up stuck in transit. The political climate is also such that it has become increasingly harder to conduct successful advocacy work, with very limited possibilities to obtain funding to take up this type of work. This means that when grassroots’ collectives and associations engage in advocacy work, it is often taken up by volunteers and interns, who, due to the difficult operational circumstances often face exhaustion and hence turn over. There is thus a real need to document and pass on earlier learnings and experiences on what advocacy strategies do (not) work and why, to redirect the energy to where wins are more likely. Our findings thus hold immediate relevance for grassroots’ humanitarian actors in other European transit zones as well.

To investigate how advocacy work by grassroots actors and NGOs has been taken up, we worked with the two major platforms supporting the humanitarian work of local citizens collectives and NGOs in each transit zone:

• On the Franco-British border we collaborated with la Plate-forme des Soutiens aux Migrant.e.s or PSM, a border-wide network that gathers 38 member-associations who are invested in humanitarian aid delivery, social-legal support and advocacy for migrants in this transit zone. This network includes French citizen collectives, French and British local associations and local antennas of national French and British NGOs.
• In Brussels we collaborated with BelRefugees, formerly known as la Plateforme Citoyenne du Soutien aux Réfugies, a citizen collective that mobilized thousands of Belgian citizens to shelter homeless-rendered migrants stuck in transit, and evolved into one of the major service-providers of emergency shelter for homeless-rendered migrants and asylum seekers in the Belgian capital.

We inventoried the advocacy strategies used by these platforms within each site, traced major changes within these strategies in response to the changing humanitarian situations and evolving political contexts, and documented their relative successes and setbacks.

In the final stages of this research project, we want to translate our research findings on advocacy for migrants in transit into multilingual practical tools that will help grassroots humanitarian actors and NGOs in Northern France and Brussel, as well as in other transit zones, in their advocacy work and legal mobilisation:

• A political ‘mémoire’ that narrates, analyzes and discusses advocacy strategies tried by the collectives and NGOs in Northern France, in book shape, combined with its visualization through a digital timeline. Note: we have already written the political mémoire of the other platform, BelRefugees, with our FWO-project funding, this is hence complementary to the valorisation work we are doing on this Brussels’ case.  
• A transnational workshop during which we will present the political mémoires, timelines and discuss the findings of our analysis with members of both platforms, as well as experts of three other European border networks, to jointly identify useful strategies that could be used for future advocacy work in transit zones, for which we will (next) develop an advocacy toolkit.
• An advocacy toolkit, as a means to engage grassroots’ collectives and NGOs in success- and failure-based learning, to reinforce their advocacy capacities. The toolkit will build on the two political mémoires and the outcomes of the workshop.
• Toolkit launches in each transit zone, through 2 hour workshops in person (in Northern France and Brussels) and online (for the other more remote transit zones where other networks engage in advocacy work). This will be followed by the dissemination of the kit throug and follow-up on its use and update (after 2 years). Toolkit will equally be presented in Belgium through a CESSMIR Breakthrough Breakfast.