On 14 January the Court of Rome confirmed its landmark ruling from December and ordered Italian authorities to issue humanitarian visas to two Afghans within ten days. After an 11-hour inspection by Italian port authorities, the Ocean Viking rescue vessel was blocked...
As authorities seek to stem the routes most widely-used to seek asylum in Europe, rendering journeys increasingly dangerous, irregular arrivals through the Balkans are on the rise. 55,000 people entered the EU irregularly through the Western Balkan route in 2021, a...
Proposed EU measures to respond to the situation at the bloc’s eastern border have been challenged by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). A trip to Poland by German MEPs and MPs has confirmed that the situation for...
On 19 January 2022 Regulation (EU) 2021/2303 on the establishment of a European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) entered into force, transforming the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) into a full-fledged agency with a broadened and enhanced mandate. With the new...
UN Secretary General António Guterres has raised critique of the treatment of asylum seekers by Cypriot authorities as riots and confrontations spread on the island. In his report to the UN Security Council on 3 January, Secretary General Guterres warned that the...
2021 ended with a series of shipwrecks in Greek waters that caused the deaths of more than 30 people. As the number of pushbacks from Greece nearly doubled in 2021, the number of arrivals to the islands is at the lowest in nine years with people pushed towards other,...
The Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration on 13 January faced an outcry by MEPs over attempts to revoke protection for Syrians and externalise asylum. Hundreds of Syrians fleeing Denmark are appearing in other EU member states, forcing courts to consider...
In 2021, three times as many attempts to cross the Channel were recorded as in 2020. France is calling for an EU-UK treaty to open up “legal means” of reaching Britain, while UK officials say the hardline Nationality and Borders Bill will address the issue. In Calais,...
As the EU’s border and coast guard agency, Frontex, tallies 8,000 “illegal border crossings” into the EU from Belarus in 2021, rights groups continue to document violence, torture, abuse and freezing temperatures faced by people on the move at the border. Médecins...
As people are forced to take ever more dangerous routes, the tragedy on the Mediterranean continues. 2021 closed with a death toll of more than 1,500 lives lost over the year: meanwhile, more than 32,000 people were intercepted and returned to Libya where the...
