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Africa and the Refugee Crisis: A Socio-Legal Inquiry

“Refugees are a reflection of our unsettled time”

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Refugees and Forced Migrants in Africa and the EU

Abstract

This chapter critically discusses the refugee crisis on the African continent from a socio-legal perspective. It commences by outlining, in accordance with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (hereinafter the UNHCR), the refugee situation in numbers and related to regions (i.e., Central Africa and Great Lakes, East and Horn of Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa) on the African continent. The numbers given refer to refugees as well as persons in refugee-like situations as of end of 2016. Secondly, this chapter provides a conceptual clarification of the concepts of ‘refugee’ and ‘asylum seeker’.

This chapter evolved from a paper presented at Pwani University College, Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy and Technical University of Munich, 1st South-East-African and European Conference on Refugees and Forced Migrants: Social Rights – Care – Mutual Benefits, Kilifi, Kenya, 2 – 3 August 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Letlhokwa George Mpedi

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  1. Letlhokwa George Mpedi
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Correspondence to Letlhokwa George Mpedi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Social Lawand Social Policy, Technical University of Munich, München, Bayern, Germany

    Elisabeth Wacker

  2. Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, München, Germany

    Ulrich Becker

  3. Max Planck Institute for Social Lawand Social Policy, Technical University of Munich, München, Bayern, Germany

    Katharina Crepaz

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Mpedi, L.G. (2019). Africa and the Refugee Crisis: A Socio-Legal Inquiry. In: Wacker, E., Becker, U., Crepaz, K. (eds) Refugees and Forced Migrants in Africa and the EU. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-24538-2_4

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