10.08.2022: For an article in The New Humanitarian; Samuel Hall spoke to journalist Mat Nashed on returns, deportations, and creating safe pathways for Afghans in the context of the one-year mark of the withdrawal of US troops. Reflecting on our research; we stressed on the difficulties to obtain travel documents and people opting to sell their property and assets to purchase travel documents on the black market. We also address the high costs of smugglers crossing the borders with Pakistan without travel documents according to our research.

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20.06.22: Samuel Hall’s Pillar Lead for Children and Youth, Marion Guillaume was interviewed by Céline Galipeau for CBC Radio Canada about the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, with a focus on the recent increase in the sale of young girls, often into forced marriages.

Marion explored the factors leading to the current dire economic situation that has led to this increase in this phenomenon. She also outlined the ongoing human rights abuses that continue within the country, with a specific focus on restrictions on women, such as the de-facto ban on girls attending secondary school.

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17.06.22: Samuel Hall Co-founder and Executive Director, Nassim Majidi guest-edited this Special Issue on Afghanistan launched by IOM Publication - Migration Policy Practice [MPP].

The edition offers nine articles from experts including Samuel Hall team members Stefanie Barratt, Nicholas Ross, Katherine James and Najia Alizada. The articles explore a range of ‘safe protection pathways that governments, universities and the diaspora can rally behind. It serves as a reminder that while Afghans must be protected at home and abroad, and must not be forgotten, the international community’s promises of operationalizing humanitarian corridors, funding, and designing legal pathways to protection must be delivered.’

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17.05.22 - Samuel Hall’s co-founder Nassim Majidi and Data Standards & Analytics Pillar Lead Stefanie Barratt with Ceri Oeppen of the University of Sussex and Camille Kasavan examines an approach that can re-balance assisted reintegration for returnees.

Returnee mentoring programmes - which borrow from social work practice - 'make a difference' in returnees' reintegration in contexts such as Guinea, Senegal and Morocco not just through the individualised support given by mentors, but their capacity to bring returnees together. They can push back on global north migration regimes by 1) empowering returnees to manage their own reintegration, 2) offering a more humane and personalised support, 3) challenging power imbalances that put donor objectives above individuals & countries of return.

In the article, authors adopt a mixed-methods approach to assess the importance of localised integration support and difference a mentorcan makek in returnees’ reintegration

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30.03.22 - In Central Sahel, seasonal migration has been a key strategy to cope with a harsh natural environment. But border securitisation & militarisation are threatening people's fundamnetal rights and the ability to move.

Samuel Hall’s Research Manager Giulio Morello with Joelle Rizk write about how 'climate risks, conflict & increasingly unfavourable policy frameworks have disrupted mobility-based resilience strategies in Central Sahel' in Forced Migration Review's issue on ‘Climate Crisis and Displacement.’

The authors highlight that it is essential that states and other actors involved in border management integrate a rights-based approach reflecting the realities of cross-border mobility within the region.

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16.02.22: Is politics a matter of ‘chaos theory', of violent and unpredictable contractions of time and space?” Reflecting on the August 2021 situation in Afghanistan, Samuel Hall's directors Hervé Nicolle and Nassim Majidi believe that it indeed is.

For International Migration Journal [IOM - UN Migration], they write that 'by offering a date to its former enemies, the US government caused a tremendous acceleration of time. Chaos at the Kabul airport caught global attention at the intersection of spatial and time elements.

Now many Afghans physically contained are unable to leave the country due to lack of legal migration options, lack of commercial flights, and continued border closures. Such restrictions violate the universal declaration of human rights.

So how can we protect the Afghans? Nassim Majidi and Hervé Nicolle believe that 'certain legal tools, such as ‘Prima Facie refugee status’ determination can be used to help Afghans at risk, and set a course for recognition.

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09.02.22 - While conducting lifeline interviews in Juba for our project on on ‘Displacement, Return & Reintegration in South Sudan’ with the ‘Research and Evidence Facility (REF) on migration in the Horn of Africa", (a research consortium led by SOAS University of London with partners from The University of Manchester and Sahan Research, Kenya) — we found that it's common for people to be displaced multiple times during their lifetime.

This sometimes splits their family across locations. Our research shows the importance of social connections & family ties in informing mobility choices. In this new blog for REF, co-founder Nassim Majidi and team share some insights from Juba on split families’ & displacement patterns in South Sudan.

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04.02.22 - For an article in the Equal Times, Emma Allen, Research Manager with Samuel Hall’s Children & Youth Pillar recently spoke to journalist, Ines Gil on the complex drivers of child labour in Afghanistan. Focusing on gendered experiences, Emma spoke about what the ban on secondary education for girls could mean in the context of child labour as well as highlighted the gap between legislation and reality on the ground.

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30.01.22 - With various partners, Samuel Hall has conducted extensive participatory research into returnee experiences – by centering their voices, documenting their relationship with host communities and embedding monitoring and evaluation into social reintegration programming.

Citing several such projects carried out by Samuel Hall, this excellent report by the Migration Policy Institute examines ‘what is and isn't known about returnees' economic, psychosocial and social reintegration’— reiterating the need to strengthen Monitoring and Evaluation systems to address knowledge gaps and track the impact of Assisted Voluntary Return & Reintegration [AVRR] investments to inform program decision-making.

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12.01.22 - In a chapter for the new Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd research handbook on International Migration and Digital Technology, Samuel Hall co-founder Nassim Majidi lays down a roadmap on the responsible use of tech for dignified return & re-integration of migrants. Co-authored by Camille Kasavan and G. Hari Harindranath, it discusses both state and migrant perspectives. Drawing on our research in 11 countries and 69 communities of return in Central and West Africa, it reveals the potential of the technology industry to integrate returnee youth into labour markets.

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02.12.21 - In June 2021, Samuel Hall interviewed Afghan factory owners for our research with MIGNEX [Aligning Migration Management and the Migration–Development Nexus]; collaborative research effort to tackle the challenges of global migration with a long-term vision for better outcomes.

This ‘MIGNEX Insight’ piece authored by co-founder Nassim Majidi and our team in Kabul reflects some findings from our research, including the challenges facing Afghan refugees today such as lack of electricity & lower tariffs on imported Pakistani goods.

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02.12.21 - Samuel Hall’s Children & Youth Pillar Lead Marion Guillaume explains the complex drivers of forced marriage in Afghanistan in her nuanced article 'Girls Under Pressure’ for ‘The Atlas Of Enslavement’ produced by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

In this short article, Marion highlights that besides traditional norms, several factors such as economic pressures, debt repayment, conflict resolution contribute to forced marriages in Afghanistan, which are estimated to be as high as 60–80%. The comprehensive article appears in this Atlas as one amongst several others that offer expert insights on forced labour and exploitation around the world.

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17.11.21 - Samuel Hall co-founder Nassim Majidi spoke to TV5Monde about the impending economic collapse in Afghanistan and its multiple impacts, ranging from forced migration to widespread food insecurity, Nassim emphasised that ‘international institutions and foreign powers have a duty to provide humanitarian aid – immediate action which does not depend on recognising the Taliban government.’ She highlighted the recent example of UNDP successfully back-paying the wages of 23,000 workers in the health sector.

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21.10.2021 - Ever since the Taliban took power and evacuation operations ended, European governments seem to have a single priority: limiting the movement of potential Afghan asylum seekers. Despite localised shows of support for their resettlement, routes for legally and safely reaching the EU remain few and far between. Nassim Majidi, Samuel Hall co-founder, spoke to the Green European Journal’s Francesca Spinelli about the absolute necessity of migration for many Afghans, the futility of returns to Afghanistan, and the urgent need for the European Community to take responsibility and ensure that Afghan refugees receive the protection that is their right under International Law.

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05.10.2021 - Samuel Hall co-founder Nassim Majidi spoke to France 3’s Génération Méditerranée program about the situation in Afghanistan following August’s Taliban takeover. Conversation covered the illegitimacy of Taliban rule, and its impact on the public and private lives of Afghanistan’s women. Nassim emphasised how the borders of Afghanistan are currently closed, trapping Afghans in their own country. She called on the international community to grant Prima Facie recognition to Afghans and to leverage all possible means to continue and expand evacuations from the country.

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30.09.21 - Researchers' methodological decisions have an impact on who gets to hear a refugees' story, the meaning a story conveys, and, consequently, the implications a story might have for forced migrants. What researchers, or aid workers, do with the stories gathered from forced migrants can contribute to their social and political invisibility, or their scholarship can be a tool to amplify refugee voices as forms of knowledge that are valid not only as testimony but as expertise to design research, programmes and policies.

In this paper co-authored by Samuel Hall co-founder Nassim Majidi and Adam Saltsman from the Department of Urban Studies, Worcester State University explore the potential of such methods have in disrupting existing regimes of what is audible, visible, or legible in society.

The authors rely on two case studies to provide insights into and learn from critical narratives from the displaced themselves: 1) at the Thai-Burmese border, 2) with Somali refugee returnees in Kismayo. The two case studies reveal different ways of working with stories and strategies that can help address the inaudibility of refugee stories.

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24.09.2021 - Samuel Hall co-founder Nassim Majidi spoke to RFI’s 7 Milliards De Voisins podcast about French (and international) efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghans from the country. Nassim highlighted how individuals, recognised as being at risk and approved on French evacuation lists, remain in the country. She called on the French government to fulfil its promises and to engage in high-level negotiations with all parties in order to ensure the continued evacuations of Afghans, including those without passports.

Nassim appeared alongside Reza Jafari (President, Enfants d'Afghanistan et d'Ailleurs Association) and Hélène Soupios-David (Advocacy Director, France Terre d’asile).

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22.09.2021 - In this signed open-letter, Samuel Hall co-founder Nassim Majidi joins a group of activists, journalists, and lawyers in assessing France’s efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghans. The letter argues that France has failed to fulfil its promises, highlighting that Afghans who were approved on the French evacuation lists - recognised as being in danger - remain in the country, as do the families of those already evacuated. The letter calls on France to do more, to continue evacuations and to ensure that Afghans that need to leave the country, even those without passports or the necessary ‘laissez-passer’ documents, are able to do so safely.

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16.09.2021 - Just over a month since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Samuel Hall co-founder Hervé Nicolle spoke to Le Soir’s Pauline Hofmann about the uncertain future for women’s rights in the country. In particular, Hervé stressed the gap between the Taliban’s rhetoric - carefully crafted - and the reality for Afghan women in their daily lives.

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14.09.2021 - In the spring of 2021, Samuel Hall conducted a qualitative assessment to document the impacts of spousal migration on Afghan wives, to understand their role in migration decision-making process, and to analyse changes to women’s empowerment. The fieldwork, conducted in nine different areas of Kabul province, was built around in-depth conversations with almost one hundred wives of labour migrants, supplemented by family tracing interviews with migrant husbands abroad, focus group discussions, and interviews with key informants.

Our research team took photographs of the shoes of each wife who was interviewed to create a visual record of their stories, while protecting each participant’s identity. With shoes often left at the doorsteps of women’s homes, accompanied by those of their children, these photographs record those who are left behind during spousal migration and those who may continue to be overlooked.

In the following photo story, with excerpts from conversations and analysis, we provide an opportunity for the Afghan women who stayed in Kabul province when their husbands had to leave to present themselves, their perceptions, and their questions. In the current climate of uncertainty in Afghanistan, ensuring these stories are recorded and amplified is more important than ever.

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