Across the world, millions of people are undertaking long, dangerous and desperate journeys across countries and continents. Some are fleeing conflict zones, persecution and famine; others are driven by the desire to better the lives of themselves and their families in safer and more prosperous parts of the world. The implications of state responses to this mass movement of people has serious implications for the human rights of those involved, raising questions of states’ human rights law obligations, the sufficiency of national and international legal frameworks and the effectiveness of their implementation.

Some of these issues have already been captured and collected in the Blog’s latest Anthology, specifically in the Chapter on Migration, Asylum and Trafficking, as well as in authoritative posts on the refugee situation in the Mediterranean by Cathryn Costello and Mariagiulia Giuffré (here and here), Guy Goodwin, Francesco Maiani and Luigi Lonardo.

In recent weeks, this mass movement of refugees and migrants from North Africa and the Middle East into Europe has generated even greater debate on the response of individual states, as well as the collective approach of the European Union. Of concern appears to be the human rights implications of particular state’s responses and when exactly moral imperatives can be said to align with legal responsibilities.

In an attempt to shed light on these important issues, the answers to which have profound consequences for millions of people desperate to cross into Europe, the Blog will be devoting next week to a series of posts on this topic, written by expert commentators from across Europe and further afield. Here is next week’s line up:

Monday: Hélène Lambert – ‘The Mass Flight of Syrian Refugees: What are the Legal Obligations of States?

Tuesday: Saipira Furstenberg – ‘The European Union’s Search for Unity as the Refugee Crisis Continues’

Wednesday: Bríd Ní Ghráinne – ‘Hungary’s Actions: Past the Borderline of International Law’

Thursday: Kanad Bagchi – ‘Are the EU Commission’s Latest Proposals Sufficient to Solve the Refugee Crisis?’

Friday: Sadaf Lakhani and Judith Reen – ‘External Processing of Refugee Claims: Problem or Part of the Solution? The Australian Experience’

Do join us on the Blog and get involved by leaving your comments at the bottom of posts or contacting us via Twitter (@OxHRH) and Facebook.