Rescue Meltdown on the Med
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...
UN Agencies Raise Alarm over Libya on Land and Sea
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...
Germany: End of Church Asylum?
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...
New Reports on Detention in the Baltics
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...
Over Four Million Refugees have Fled the Deepening Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela
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...
Legal Assistant internship
ECRE is offering two 6-month legal internships: August 2019 – January 2020. The purpose of these positions is to assist ECRE’s Legal Support and Litigation Team with legal training, legal research on specific topics relating to international protection, managing the...
Weekly Editorial: After the European Parliament Elections: What Now?
The EP elections have come and gone, and assessing the results throws up qualified positives: turnout was up… but it is still low; the far right populists have not significantly improved their position… but are still too strong. Four key conclusions and accompanying...
Back and Forth on the Med: Rescues, Deaths, Interceptions, Resistance
This week, Maltese Armed Forces rescued 370 people. Off the Libyan coast, at least two people drowned and 25 remain missing while a group of 73 was rescued and brought back to Libya. A group of 75 rescued migrants demands to go to Europe after Tunisian authorities...