The Swedish Riskdag adopted yesterday a two-year extension of the temporary law on residence permits. The law, voted in July 2016, had introduced a three-year period of reduced standards for people seeking asylum from 24 November 2015 onwards. The restrictive measures...
A Government Decree entering into force next month establishes a National General Directorate for Immigration (Országos Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság) under the management of the Police, which will be responsible for immigration and asylum-related tasks. The...
The U.S. Administration will suspend hundreds of millions USD in foreign aid to Central American countries in an attempt to pressure governments to prevent citizens from migrating. Aid workers and law makers predict the opposite effect. The State department has...
Just when it seemed that the debate on asylum and migration policy might creep back towards rationality… Just when you thought you could read a policy document without becoming infuriated… out comes “A New Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024”. The Agenda, authored...
On 7 June 2019, the German Parliament adopted several controversial amendments which regulate immigration and asylum-related issues. The amendments are now awaiting approval from the second chamber, the Bundesrat. One of the amendments is the “Orderly Return Law”...
Rescue efforts cannot keep up with departures and loss of lives on the Mediterranean while crackdown on rescue ships and civil society organisations continues. This week, seven people have drowned while trying to reach the Greek island of Lesvos from Turkey in a boat...
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) reports of migrants and refugees left “effectively to die” in the Zintan detention Centre. As more people flee abuse and danger in the conflict ridden North African country the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warns of the Mediterranean...
In the first quarter of 2019, Germany recognised only 2 out of 147 cases of “church asylum”. MPs and inter-faith associations fear the disappearance of the humanitarian practice and attribute the stark decrease to stricter criteria of the Federal Office for Migration...
The Global Detention Project released reports on detention of migrants and asylum seekers in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia revealing challenges in all three Baltic States. Estonia: fails to conform to EU Return Directive by allowing for automatic detention of...
The number of refugees fleeing the worsening crisis in Venezuela has now surpassed 4 million, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Since November 2018, over 1 million people have fled the country, in part...
