North Africa in Transition: Mobility, Forced Migration and Humanitarian Crises: Session 1

From the end of 2010, a series of unexpected popular uprisings have spread across North Africa and the Middle East. The dramatic unfolding of events has disrupted the ever changing patterns of mobility in the region in new and disturbing ways, including uprooting people, transforming existing migrants into refugees and constraining the movement of mobile populations. Some events, as in Egypt and Tunisia, have been largely peaceful, with political transitions under the mediation of the army. Other events have been brutal, with a witnessing of force of arms and violent suppression of the opposition in Libya, for example.