Migration isn’t always a straight line from one country to another. People may leave home because of conflict, poverty, persecution, family separation, the impacts of climate change or a combination of factors. Their journeys can involve many stops, border crossings and unexpected obstacles before they reach safety, stability or a place where they can rebuild their lives.

And at every stage of their journey, the risks people are subjected to can change. They need clear and reliable information before they travel. They may need legal advice, protection and support at the border. And they need consistent access to services throughout their journey.

That’s because what happens in one place can shape what happens in another. Poor information, lack of legal advice, gaps in access to services and restricted safe and accessible pathways for migration can push people into greater danger, including increasing the risk of exploitation, irregularity or immigration detention.

This is why protection and human rights cannot stop and start at each border. People need continuous support that reflects how migration journeys actually happen: across different countries, systems and through the multiple stages of the journey.

The Pathways to Protection Consortium, known as P2P, was created with this reality in mind.

What is the Pathways to Protection Consortium?

P2P is a five-year programme focused on strengthening the protection and rights of people moving along the Mediterranean migration routes, where risks can change quickly from one country to the next. Its purpose is to make sure people can access support and information before, during and after migration journeys, and that their rights are protected, wherever they are along the route.

The programme is led by the Danish Refugee Council, the Danish Red Cross and International Detention Coalition, with financial support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Together, the partners bring expertise in access to human rights, protection and programming along migration routes, evidence-based advocacy, peer learning and systems change.

P2P programmes currently focus on Mali, Niger, Senegal, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Chad, Sudan and Türkiye. The advocacy component works across the entire route.

In practical terms, the programme helps people find information they can trust, access services and address their immediate needs, understand their rights and access safe, appropriate support. It also works to advance migration governance approaches that are grounded in human rights – like community-based alternatives to detention – along the whole migratory route.

Why this approach matters

 

Migration systems are often built around borders and legal categories, but people’s journeys do not always fit neatly into these systems.

A person may be seen as a refugee in one setting, a migrant in another, a person in transit somewhere else and an irregular arrival at a border. Each label can shape what support they can access. Each country’s system may ask different questions, use different procedures and offer different levels of protection.

For the person moving, these distinctions can make it even more challenging to ensure safety, stability, family, healthcare, legal advice and dignity.

When services are fragmented, people fall through the gaps. They may have to repeat their story many times. They may not know where to seek help. They may lose access to support as soon as they cross a border. They may be detained because there is no alternative process in place to support them while their case is resolved.

Pathways to Protection looks at what people experience across the journey. It asks where the risks are, who is already providing support and where systems need to be better connected.

Filling in these protection gaps has an immediate impact for people on the ground. A good referral can help someone reach safety. Clear information can help someone avoid exploitation. Legal advice can help someone understand their options. Community-based support can keep people out of detention and allow them to live with dignity while immigration procedures take place.

IDC’s role in P2P

As part of P2P, IDC’s goal is to help change the wider systems around migration, so people have safer routes, clear pathways, and much needed support, and are less likely to be detained or have their rights breached. To achieve this we’re bringing our specific expertise on advancing human rights-based migration governance, immigration detention, alternatives to detention, promoting migrant rights and access to services, through advocacy, peer learning and policy change.

In practice, IDC is working with partners and authorities in countries of origin, transit and destination to show how it’s possible to reduce harm and deaths of migrants, to preserve their rights along their journey and to avoid immigration detention.

We’re aiming to connect governments and other key actors along the route, enhancing human rights-based approaches to migration and supporting migrants to live in the community, rather than detaining them or leaving them without support. That support can include trusted and accessible information, legal advice, case management, referrals to services and practical avenues that allow people to move or resolve their situation more safely and with dignity.

Through P2P, IDC helps share learning between governments and other key actors including civil society, United Nations agencies across the routes, supporting them with constructive peer learning approaches. We also help bring evidence from the Consortium into wider regional and global discussions about how migration systems could be improved.

IDC’s expertise in policy influencing is key here. We’re helping the project to deliver long-term and systems-level changes that will help governments centre human rights in their migration policies and approach.

For IDC, this matters because detention is often a sign that the wider system has failed. When people have access to information, advice, essential services, community support and safer pathways for migration, detention becomes less likely and less necessary.

For IDC, ending immigration detention is not only about closing detention centres. It is also about building the systems, relationships, services and trust that end reliance on detention.

A more connected approach to migration

The idea behind P2P is simple: people should not have to lose access to rights and protection because they cross a border, move between systems or do not fit neatly into one legal category.

A person’s need for safety does not end at a border. A child’s rights do not stop because their family is moving. A survivor of violence should not have to start again each time they reach a new country. A person seeking protection should not be detained because support in the community has not been made available.

P2P helps show what that can look like across real migration journeys. It recognises that people move through connected routes, connected risks and connected systems. Our response needs to be connected too.

Together with our P2P partners, we are working towards protection systems that are more coordinated, more practical and more human.