Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 57 countries that make up the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which stretch
across Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East, play a central role in the global debate
on forced migration. Nearly two thirds of the world’s forced migrants originate from OIC
Member States. At the same time, these states host over half of all refugees and asylum seekers
in the world, with many serving simultaneously as countries of origin, transit, and destination.
OIC countries therefore shoulder a disproportionate share of the global responsibility for
protecting displaced people worldwide, even though their total GDP represents only 8.9
percent of the world’s total.
Many OIC countries have experienced significant new flows of refugees and asylum seekers
within the past year that have precipitated new challenges and policy responses. This has
been true in the five case study countries analyzed in depth in this report—Turkey, Jordan,
Morocco, Uganda, and Sweden (the latter being a major recipient of OIC migrants). While in
some countries the absolute numbers are still comparatively small (like in Morocco or
Uganda), in others the numbers have reached historic levels (such as in Turkey and Jordan).
As the number of refugees worldwide reached a new high in 2015, even countries with the
most advanced asylum systems in the world (such as Sweden) were overwhelmed by the scale
and pace of flows.
While there is tremendous diversity in the legal structures, protection regimes, and poverty
alleviation efforts developed for forced migrants across OIC countries, many of these countries
share certain fundamental principles governing their treatment of refugees. For the most part,
even countries that are not signatories to the Geneva Convention broadly respect the core
principle of nonrefoulement on which the international humanitarian system is based. Nearly
all OIC countries are signatories to the Convention Against Torture, which commits them to
this principle -even if they do not formally recognize individuals seeking protection as
refugees. At the same time, there are great differences in the extent to which countries have
transposed their principles into their national legislation. The five case studies analyzed in this
report illustrate the diversity of forced migration flows to and from OIC countries- and the
equally diverse range of policy responses at the local, national, and regional levels developed
in response to these flows.
Complex forced migration flows raise unique policy challenges
Forced migration flows often occur close to home, with conflicts, political instability, or
persecution in neighboring countries driving refugees and asylum seekers to look for
protection in the region -placing a disproportionate responsibility on states bordering conflict
zones. Overall, 74 percent of OIC refugees and asylum seekers have sought protection in other
OIC Member States. Pakistan, for example, hosts over two million refugees from neighboring
Afghanistan.1 And Turkey -which now hosts more refugees than any other country in the
world- has experienced most of its flows from neighboring Syria. Together, Turkey, Jordan,
and Lebanon host nearly 90 percent of the over 5 million internationally displaced Syrians.
Although the 2011 civil war in Syria has had a massive impact on many OIC countries and
garnered extraordinary international attention, it is only one of many drivers of forced
migration in the Middle East and Africa. Conflict and violence continue to drive movements
within and from other OIC countries including Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Political
1 According to the Government of Pakistan, the estimated number of Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan is over 2.5 million. This
figure includes both registered and unregistered refugees, according to Government of Pakistan sources.