Inside Geneva: Q&A on migration, asylum, and refugees

This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, we answer questions from our listeners about migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.

Our listeners asked us the following questions: What’s the difference between asylum seekers, stateless populations, and undocumented migrants? How does third country resettlement work? Does the United Nations Refugee Agency, or the International Organization for Migration, have the power to prosecute countries if they violate their obligations to UN conventions?

Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined by experts to provide answers on a topic that is often controversial.

“Refugees are forced to leave their countries because of war, conflict and human rights violations. Basically, their lives are in danger,” says Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“Most people don’t want to leave. They leave because they feel like there’s no other option but to leave,” says Paul Dillon, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“You just can’t push back people at borders if they’re seeking international protection. They need to be afforded that right to seek asylum,” says Mantoo.

“The conversation is toxic, divisive, and dangerous. Those conversations are not really fact-based, they’re emotive,” says Dillon.

For more insights and discussions from Switzerland’s international city, subscribe to Inside Geneva on Apple PodcastsExternal link, SpotifyExternal link, or wherever you get your podcasts. And subscribe to our newsletter to get all the International Geneva news and views from Imogen Foulkes in your inbox:

For more audio content from SWI swissinfo.ch, explore The Swiss Connection, a podcast with Swiss stories for the world.