Humanitarian corridors: between resettlement and private sponsorship of refugees in Europe

Résumé En

In parallel to the United Nations resettlement programs and based on the Canadian sponsorship model, some charities are managing to successfully bring people seeking protection into the European Union (EU) with the approval of governments.From 2015 to 2021, 4300 people arrived in Europe through humanitarian corridors organized by Sant'Egidio1, Federation of Protestant Mutual Aid (FEP), etc. These Christian associations have initiated private sponsorship reception for refugees, which are rare legal access routes from Lebanon, Ethiopia, Libya to the EU. Since Pope Francis’ declarations in 2013, civil society is invited to act in favor of migrants as an alternative to people shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.The Italian government signed a first agreement in 2015 for 1,011 Syrians and Iraqis from Lebanon. The French government then signed three agreements (2017, two in 2021) overseeing the reception of 1,100 people from Lebanon via these self-financed schemes in charge of the reception and integration of refugees. Associations are responsible for promoting the project and coordinating the reception at national level. While the State's missions are limited to controlling entries to the territory and issuing travel documents, refugees are assessed by the associations based on their vulnerability according to humanitarian criteria.We will question the geography outlined by this chain of public-private actors that put forward a policy to detriment of other mechanisms involved in the making of European asylum, while questioning these forms of citizen’s engagement in refugees’ reception. Part of our analysis of these corridors, based on a field study conducted in a transit country, Lebanon, allow us to grasp the interplay of institutional and organizational actors in the procedures related to legal channels (corridors/resettlement). This approach aims to focus on power and interrelations of the actors involved in Lebanon in the outsourcing of asylum applications (French consulate, UNHCR, faith-based organizations).