RAN Small-scale meeting P/CVE perspective on the vulnerabilities of asylum seekers and refugee communities, online meeting 18 November 2021

The RAN small-scale meeting on P/CVE and the vulnerabilities of asylum seekers and refugees took place on 18 November 2021. This meeting brought together first line practitioners with experience in working with refugee and asylum seeker communities.

The goal was to explore the vulnerabilities of these communities related to radicalisation and recruitment, and the P/CVE efforts in arrival, transit, and destination countries. Some of the key findings of the meeting are listed below.

• Many asylum seekers score high on risk factors that are considered to make them vulnerable for recruitment to violent extremism or radicalisation. However, only a few of them ever actually radicalises.
• Arrival, transit, and destination countries can all play a role in primary prevention and reducing the breeding ground for radicalisation, by giving asylum seekers the possibility to enter the asylum procedure, providing basic services like housing and treating them decently and with respect. However, the focus in arrival and transit countries at the moment seems to be more on CVE (detection of radicalisation or even of terrorists) than on PVE (lowering vulnerability and safeguarding).
• Many asylum seekers and refugees who fled warzones have experienced sometimes dangerous journeys, suffer from trauma and mental health issues. When vulnerabilities are not addressed, they might lead to harmful developments for these individuals, with radicalisation being only one of them.

This paper will first describe the main themes discussed during the meeting and relevant practices. Recommendations concerning the P/CVE perspective on the vulnerabilities of asylum seeker and refugee communities are outlined in the second part. The paper concludes with an outlook on future meetings on related topics.