Weekly Editorial: To the Bulgarian Presidency: EU global punch needs inner solidarity
With its assumption of the EU Presidency, Bulgaria becomes the latest member state to grapple with the reform of the European asylum system. Although post-Lisbon, the Presidency is not what it used to be, it does afford a certain influence on decision making through...
OPed: Cooperation with Morocco in the EU’s African Border – a laboratory of externalization
By Jon Sebastian Rodriguez Forrest, Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left, who visited Melilla and Nador with a parliamentary delegation at the end of 2017 The fences encircling the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are the only...
Francken gate – an illustrative example of risks in returning migrants at any cost
The current crisis in the Belgian government provoked by the alleged torture of undocumented migrants from Sudan returned from Belgium after being interviewed by a Sudanese government delegation is illustrative of the risks involved when EU and Member States apply a...
Serbia extradites Kurdish activist to Turkey despite UN Request to stall
The Kurdish activist Cevdet Ayaz was extradited from Serbia to Turkey despite the UN Committee Against Torture request to stall the transfer, reported the Belgrade Center for Human Rights (BCHR), his legal representation in Serbia. Ayaz had fled Turkey following a...
ECRE policy note: Making Asylum Numbers Count – Gaps and Reform Needs in the Area of Asylum Statistics
ECRE has published a Policy Note analysing gaps in the collection and provision of asylum statistics in the EU at a time when the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) is debated in an aura of “high politics”. Problems identified include an overly narrow set of...
Mediterranean Sea 2017: Arrivals in Europe decrease, old routes are increasingly active and journeys remain deadly
Following a systematic EU policy of externalization , the overall number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe decreased in 2017, with Italy and Greece recording the lowest number of arrivals in four years. At the same time Spain and Cyprus reported an increase...Greece: suspension of protection grant after first-ever government appeal against positive asylum decision*
The Administrative Court of Appeal of Athens has accepted a request by the Greek Ministry of Migration Policy for a provisional order to suspend a decision of the Appeals Committee granting refugee status to a Turkish soldier, pending the outcome of judicial review...
Weekly Editorial: Tusk’s intervention on mandatory relocation: unexpected, unwelcome and unproductive
Fortunately, it seems that the EU’s Member States have squarely rejected Council President Donald Tusk’s analysis on mandatory quotas. The chances of ending Europe’s political crisis on migration have improved as a consequence. In a note, which seems to have been both...