Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
7
developing countries. Nearly 60 percent of refugees were hosted by just 10 countries,2 all of
which are classified as developing economies by the UN.3 For member countries of the
Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, these challenges are particularly acute. OIC Countries
host over half of the global refugee population, and four of the top five host countries are OIC
Member States.4
This report examines the situation of forced migrants in OIC Countries with specific attention
to the implications of forced migration and protection policies for efforts to alleviate poverty
in these countries. The analysis takes a case study approach, examining forced migrant
populations and protection policies in five case study countries with a specific attention to
policies with an impact on poverty alleviation including housing, employment, education, and
health care.
The case study countries -Turkey, Jordan, Morocco, Uganda, and Sweden- are drawn from each
of the three OIC regions and also represent countries with substantial OIC forced migrant
populations. Together, these case studies offer a wealth of forced migration experiences and a
range of differing approaches to providing protection. Two countries, Turkey and Morocco,
are in the process of developing and implementing their first comprehensive asylum
legislation and implementation regimes -changes sparked in part by these countries’
transition from migration transit countries to asylum destinations in their own right. Other
countries, including Jordan and Uganda, have long been host to substantial forced migrant
populations, yet offer deeply contrasting approaches to legal status and rights they afford to
forced migrants. Finally, Sweden, while not an OIC country, has recently received nearly three
quarters of its asylum seekers from the OIC, and has long been hailed as possessing one of the
most advanced asylum systems in the world. Yet the strain placed on the Swedish system by
the large-scale migration flows across the Mediterranean in 2015 has raised questions about
what level of stress even such a highly sophisticated protection regime can be expected to
handle alone.
The report begins by exploring the concept and definition of forced migration as a
phenomenon as well as international legal approaches to dealing with forced migration. The
following chapter examines forced migration trends in and from OIC countries, and takes a
broad look at policy response to forced migration in OIC countries at both the national and
regional level. The report then turns to an in-depth analysis of policy responses in each of the
case study countries as well as an evaluation of the effects of forced migration in each country.
Finally, the report concludes by drawing comparative lessons regarding the challenges
countries face in hosting forced migrants and promising practices for mitigating the costs of
forced migration for host communities and forced migrants alike.
2 UNHCR 2015 Global trends report
4 See Chapter 2: Forced Migration in and from OIC Countries