The dissemination & policy event, organized by Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa, in cooperation with the Institute for Development and International Relations, aims at disseminating the research findings of the Jean Monnet TraPoCO Network beyond its core partners, targeting think tanks, NGO practitioners, as well as local civil society organizations, policy-makers and other interested stakeholders.

It will in particular focus on the Western Balkans migratory route, which has been largely crossed since the 2015 long summer of migration by people on the move striving to access the territory of the European Union to lodge an asylum claim. In this context, Croatia, the most recent member to join the EU in 2013, has played a pivotal role in containing the passage of migrants also by means of violence, as denounced by Amnesty International, amongst others.

Today’s meeting will delve into the role of transnational solidarity groups, whose support activities continued also during the pandemic, although being restricted by the measures enforced, in the country and at the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where migrants are still trapped at the external borders of the EU. Besides presenting the findings of a research conducted in the aftermath of the pandemic amongst grassroots solidarity groups, the meeting will benefit from the intervention of well-known activists for human rights engaged in the country to support people on the move and active in denouncing the violation of human rights at the borders of the EU. The activists will also present an update about the situation of people on the move still traversing the Western Balkans migratory route. Moreover, the results of the research dealing with the opportunities and limitations offered by the European space to civil society organizations will further the debate concerning the context in which civil society actors are embedded.