FM Alert, Vol III, No. 24

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Subject: FM Alert, Vol III, No. 24

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

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FM Alert, Vol III, No. 24


FM Alert, Vol III, No. 24
June 18, 1999
 
FMP TO CEASE OPERATIONS
 
The Forced Migration Projects (FMP) will cease operations at the Open
Society Institute (OSI) on August 31, 1999. The FMP closure comes as a
result of a strategic consolidation at OSI. In its more than five
years of existence, the FMP helped ease hardships for millions of
refugees and displaced persons in the former Soviet Union and in the
former Yugoslavia. In particular, the FMP played a vital role in
promoting the greater involvement of local nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) in CIS states in the follow up to the 1996 CIS
Conference on migration-related issues. The FMP helped guide the
development of a CIS Research Council, and an association of
migration-related NGOs, which now appears well positioned to assume
implementation and leadership responsibilities in the follow-up
process. In recent years, the FMP also achieved successes in promoting
durable solutions for formerly deported peoples, including Crimean
Tatars and Meskhetian Turks. The Gasprinsky Library, which opened this
month in Simferopol, Ukraine, has the potential to help ease
inter-ethnic tensions in the Crimean Peninsula that have been stirred
by the Crimean Tatars' return to their traditional homeland.
Meanwhile, a dialogue on Meskhetian Turk issues, including a meeting
in Vienna in March, produced a framework document that can serve as
the basis for lasting repatriation and integration arrangements. In
the former Yugoslavia, the FMP-sponsored Legal Policy Task Force has
worked over the years to strengthen regional legal frameworks
governing property rights and citizenship, which would facilitate the
return of refugees and displaced persons. Most recently, the FMP has
worked to establish a database that is designed to facilitate the
voluntary and stable return of displaced Kosovars. In the Americas and
Caribbean Basin, the FMP has successfully promoted the need for the
continuing development of a regional migration framework, as well as
urged a more human response to US immigration issues. The full text of
all FMP publications published over the past five years, including
special reports, are available on the FMP website at
http://www.soros.org/migrate.html. The website will contain
instructions on how hard copies of publications can be ordered after
August 31. "I am proud of the fine body of work produced by the staff
of the Forced Migration Projects and believe that the Projects have
had a clear and positive impact in the places where we have worked,"
said FMP Director Arthur C. Helton. "I am sure that I will remain in
contact with many of the colleagues in the region and elsewhere with
whom we have worked." This will be the last edition of FM Alert.
 
For more information contact:
     The Forced Migration Projects
     400 West 59th Street, 4th floor
     New York, NY 10019
     tel: (212)548-0655
     fax: (212) 548-4676
     e-mail: [email protected]
     website: www.soros.org/migrate.html

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