Radio Unheard, a podcast exploring the political nature of art and the intersections of art and politics, featured Dr. Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek (Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies) in its 11 July 2025 episode. As a coordinator of the GAPs project, Dr. Şahin-Mencütek discussed the Temporary Protection system—an emergency measure designed to provide immediate protection for people unable to return home during situations of mass displacement.
Read MoreBuilding on data collected through the EU Horizon Europe GAPs project, the forthcoming edited volume Coerced Returns: Politics, Infrastructures and Mobilities examines the conceptual complexities of coerced return. Organized into distinct sections, the book explores the dynamics of return infrastructures, return diplomacy, and migration trajectories…
Read MoreOn 29 June, Dr. Mateusz Krępa, researcher on the GAPs project, was invited as a guest on Polsat News, one of Poland’s leading news broadcasters. During the live program, Dr. Krępa offered expert analysis on the growing tensions at the Polish-German border, particularly in relation to the return of asylum seekers under the Dublin Regulation.
Read MoreJamal Shalabi, Professor of Political Science at Hashemite University and a partner in the GAPs project, has published a compelling op-ed in the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar. The piece explores why, despite the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the rise of a new government under Ahmed al-Sharaa in December 2024, Syrian refugees in Jordan are hesitant to return. Shalabi argues that the regime change was seen by many as more than…
Read MoreOn April 23, 2025, a significant intervention in Europe's ongoing return migration debate took place in Warsaw. During a seminar titled "The New EU Return Regulation in the Light of Empirical Research Results," Mateusz Krępa of the GAPs team at the University of Warsaw reported findings that pierce legal abstraction to put the returnees' lived experiences front and center…
Read MoreA new article by GAPs coordinators Dr. Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek (BICC), Soner Barthoma (Uppsala University), and project partner Hidayet Sıddıkoğlu (BILIM Afghanistan) sheds light on the normally elusive realm of return diplomacy between Turkey and Afghanistan. Published in International Migration with the title "Return Diplomacy between Turkey and Afghanistan. Governing Returns through Religious and Humanitarian Networks," the article analyzes…
Read MoreWe are pleased to invite submissions for the international conference "Navigating Return Migration: What Next? Diplomacy, Infrastructures, and Pathways Beyond" - the culminating event of the Horizon Europe GAPs Project. This two-day symposium will critically examine the ethical, historical, infrastructural, and diplomatic dimensions of return migration while centering migrant experiences. It will take place on January 22-23, 2026 at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey.
Read MoreOn 16 April 2025, the GAPs project shared key research insights at the “Workshop on the Politics of Return: Cooperation Frameworks and Negotiation Dynamics,” hosted by the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Organized under the Horizon Europe project Finding Agreement in Return (FAiR), the one-day event brought together around 20 practitioners and scholars from Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Switzerland, and representatives of international organizations including UNHCR and IOM.
Read MoreAt the 2025 IMISCOE Spring Conference in Krems, Austria, titled The Regularity of Irregularity: Rethinking Migration Paradigms, Horizon Europe project GAPs organized and participated (jointly with FAiR, another Horizon Europe project) panels that critically examined return policies, migration governance, and migrant agency. These two panels at the IMISCOE Spring Conference underscored the importance of critically analyzing migration governance, return policies, and migrant agency, offering valuable contributions to contemporary debates on irregular migration and return dynamics…
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