25 years of forced migration

Forced Migration Review ( FMR ), based in the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford, is marking its 25th anniversary. The free magazine, which is available in print and online, reaches a worldwide readership of at least 20,000, making it the most widely-read publication on forced migration and issues relating to refugees. The periodical started life as a black-and-white booklet known as the Refugee Participation Network newsletter and was initiated by the founder of Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre, Barbara Harrell-Bond. FMR is now published in English, French, Spanish and Arabic and aims to stimulate debate and provide a forum for sharing knowledge about refugees, internally displaced people and stateless people. FMR contributor Jeff Crisp, from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has written an article to commemorate the anniversary of the publication, taking stock of some of the events and trends that FMR has covered over the last 25 years. Highlights from the article: Boat people - One difference in the world today is the way that 'boat people' are perceived as compared with when the magazine set up in 1987, he says. Back then the world's attention was focused on the plight of the Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people and although maritime refugee movements of this scale have not been witnessed since, 'boat people' from Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka still take their chances on the high seas.