Rethinking Borders: Integrating Humanitarian Border Management into Traditional Border Governance

What is Humanitarian Border Management?

Given the increasingly complex relationship between humanitarian crises and migratory flows, a fundamental question arises:

How can a humanitarian approach be integrated into the traditional responsibilities of border authorities? and how might these approaches complement each other?

IOM’s model of Humanitarian Border Management (HBM) is designed to strike a balance between the need to uphold human rights, even amidst the difficulties posed by a crisis setting, and the equally pressing necessity of ensuring border security in all circumstances.

HBM integrates the legal, operational, and logistical aspects of border management within the context of humanitarian responses to cross-border crises. It effectively bridges humanitarian imperatives, state sovereignty and security duties, while simultaneously promoting the rule of law and fostering social cohesion.

To this end, the HBM model ensures that traditional border systems, focused on guaranteeing that external threats do not impact internal security, are not inherently opposed to any humanitarian dimension of managing borders during crises, in full respect of the rights and dignity of crisis-affected populations.

How is HBM implemented?

HBM is implemented through a flexible and multi-layered approach that spans various levels of border governance and different phases of border management.

It involves activities that range from high-level governmental policies and directives by central authorities, to practical actions carried out at border areas, including entry and exit points.

A sound and comprehensive implementation of an HBM strategy relies on three core phases:

1. Preparedness: Ensuring readiness through planning, preparation, coordination, and capacity development, well in advance of any crisis.
2. Crisis Response: This phase involves an active commitment to saving lives, addressing vulnerabilities and protecting people on the move once crises outbreak, on the basis of pre-defined collaboration mechanisms which clarify chains of command, roles and responsibilities, and guarantee smooth cooperation among government and non-government actors involved in crisis response.
3. Recovery and Resilience: In the post-crisis phase, the focus shifts to enhancing resilience and facilitating recovery, including for the resumption of ordinary border management operations, as well as assessing and ensuring that the measures taken in favour of the hosted population are sustainable, including regularization options. This also serves as a moment for gathering lessons learned to inform future responses.

What are the key challenges to the implementation of an HBM model?

Implementing an HBM model poses distinct challenges, especially when national legal frameworks diverge from international standards, or operational procedures insufficiently uphold human rights imperatives - for example, the principle of non-refoulement.

Even normally well-functioning border management structures can be stretched to their limits when under extraordinary pressure, leading border authorities to operate at or beyond their capacities. In emergency situations, without adequate resources and clear procedures in place, even routine tasks such as registration, identification, screening, and referral of individuals can pose significant challenges for border officers.

Consequently, in these situations, it is evermore vital to ensure that essential processes in place at the border respect fundamental rights and international protection standards, while, of course, maintaining high levels of effectiveness and efficiency.

In these scenarios, the intricate interplay among various stakeholders, including rights holders and duty bearers, underscores the need for flexible and adaptive operating models.

An effective HBM model represents a critical response to navigate the delicate balance between security duties and humanitarian imperatives, with a view to ensuring coherent and rights-based border management even under sudden and significant pressure.

HBM: looking ahead

In the intricate realm of migratory movements, HBM emerges as a pivotal strategy to effectively cover legal imperatives, humanitarian principles, and national security obligations.

As a model, HBM offers a complementary operational framework for States to enhance the effectiveness of national and international cooperation, ensure good border governance, as well as safety and security measures through a protection-oriented approach.

As the landscape of emergencies transforms, the adoption of such model becomes crucial in fostering more humane, secure, and sustainable responses to the crisis, minimizing unnecessary harm, and upholding the dignity of all crisis-affected individuals.

At the same time, as global migration trends continue to shift, the strategies employed to develop effective HBM models must also evolve.

Anticipated developments in HBM include a stronger focus on preparedness, leveraging national and international collaboration, incorporating advanced technologies, and further adhering to international standards.

Through advancing efforts on its HBM model, IOM strives to saving lives and protecting people on the move, putting the safety, dignity and protection of people first in the most challenging crisis response contexts in the world.

In addition, aligning HBM responses to regular pathways initiatives could further mitigate crisis-related challenges, leveraging international cooperation and solidarity. This, in turn, could facilitate access to rights and services for migrants, particularly those in vulnerable situations, and accelerate the integration of migrant communities.

For more info on HBM, we invite you to refer to the following resources: Humanitarian Border Management | International Organization for Migration (iom.int); Humanitarian Border Management and Services for Citizens Abroad | Emergency Manual (iom.int)

Gratitude is extended to our online volunteer engaged through UNV’s Online Volunteering Programme Marie Mechela for her indispensable contribution to the drafting of this article.