New Greek law to include detention regime in ‘hotspots’

12th February 2016 | News

12 February 2016 The Greek Government intends to introduce a new detention regime in the ‘hotspots’ as part of legislative reforms of the country’s first reception framework. The Greek Parliament aims to fast-track the adoption of the law before the end of this month....

Refugees freeze to death on their way to safety

12th February 2016 | News

12 February 2016 Refugees are dying everyday while trying to reach Europe by boat. According to UNHCR, over 400 people lost their lives while undertaking these dangerous journeys since the beginning of the year. However, refugees also loose their lives fleeing by land...

Red Cross: Offshore processing inadequate to solve ‘access crisis’

12th February 2016 | News

12 February 2016 The Red Cross EU office has recently published a study, Europe in Crisis: facilitating access to protection, (discarding) offshore processing and mapping alternatives to the way forward. The author of the report, Dr Moreno-Lax finds that there is an...

Massive public outcry after Australia rules on the legality of offshore detention centres

12th February 2016 | News

12 February 2016 Earlier this month, Australia’s High Court ruled that the offshore detention of asylum seekers is not in violation of the Australian constitution. The case was filed by a Bangladeshi woman, detained on Nauru and later brought to Australia because of...

Syrian donor conference raises over $10bn – still $3bn short of urgent needs

5th February 2016 | News

5 February 2016 On 4 February, a donor conference in London raised more than 10 billion US $ in international aid to support people caught up in the Syrian conflict. Co-hosted by the UK, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, and the United Nations, the ‘Supporting Syria and the...

EU Commission adopts: Greece ‘seriously neglected’ Schengen border controls

5th February 2016 | News

5 February 2016 On 2 February, the EU’s College of Commissioners adopted the Schengen Evaluation Report on Greece and a proposal for a Council Recommendation on ‘addressing the serious deficiencies identified in the evaluation report on the application of Schengen...

Europol estimates 10,000 underage refugee children have gone missing

5th February 2016 | News

5 February 2016 This week Europol released alarming figures concerning the number of missing unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Europol Chief of Staff Brian Donald told The Observer that since the start of the refugee crisis at least 5,000 unaccompanied children...

Hungary and Slovakia request the Court of Justice of the European Union to annul the relocation decision

5th February 2016 | News

5 February 2016 In December 2015, Slovakia and Hungary filed a legal action with the Court of Justice of the European Union against the September relocation decision, which refers to the relocation of an additional 120,000 asylum seekers from Greece, Italy and other...

Rescuing people in distress at sea is a duty placed on everyone

5th February 2016 | News

5 February 2016 A new incident made the headlines last week, when an Australian rescue worker allegedly let 31 people drown in the Aegean because their boat was still in Turkish waters and the rescuers themselves were in international waters. According to his...

MPI Europe: Getting the balance right: strengthening asylum reception capacity at national and EU levels

5th February 2016 | News

5 February 2016 MPI Europe has written a report on strengthening asylum reception capacity at national and EU level, investigating the tension between guaranteeing good conditions and meeting high levels of demand. It suggests that there are three key elements for a...