Atlantic Route: Almost 200 Lives Lost Over the Past Weeks, Arrivals in the Canaries Doubled from Last Year, NGO Estimates Death Toll up 500% in 2021
Recent shipwrecks en route to the Spanish Canary Islands have cost at least 195 lives, as a trend of increasing arrivals since 2019 continues. NGOs estimate at least 2,000 people have died whilst attempting to cross to the Canaries since the start of this year. On 30...
Greece: Council of Europe Concerned Over Crackdown on NGOs, Human Rights Monitoring a Precondition for Additional Funding, Pushbacks Continue, Afghan Refugees Stuck in Limbo
Council of Europe urges the Greek parliament to reconsider legislative proposals that hinder “life-saving” work and human rights monitoring by NGOs. According to European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, the monitoring of human rights is a precondition...
ECRE Annual General Conference 2021
Annual General Conference of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) takes place on 8 and 9 December 2021 in Brussels, Belgium (Renaissance Brussels Hotel, Rue du Parnasse 19, 1050 Brussels, Belgium). You can register for the AGC21 here Deadline for...
EU Eastern Borders: European Court of Human Rights Orders Interim Measures as Stand-off on Belarus-EU Border Continues with People Caught in the Middle
On 25 August, in the latest development in the situation at the EU’s border with Belarus, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) indicated interim measures in cases against Poland and Latvia covering material support for complainants at the borders between the two...
Greece: Tabled Bill Continues Erosion of Protection – Greek Authorities Imposing Fees and Fines on Asylum Seekers and NGOs
On 25 August the Greek government tabled a Bill amending deportation and return procedures, residence permits and asylum procedures. The bill has been met with severe criticism for eroding protection and introducing new fees and fines imposed on asylum seekers and the...
Atlantic Route and Spain: Ceuta Court Rejects Deportations of Children to Morocco – One in Three Journeys End Deadly on the Canary Route
A court judgment in Ceuta has frozen Spanish attempts to return children to Morocco en masse after ruling that procedural safeguards must be respected even in “exceptional” circumstances. According to NGOs the journey from North Africa to the Canaries is currently...
Med: More than 20,000 People Intercepted and Returned to Libya in 2021 – Civilian Rescue Assets Released after Detention by Italian Authorities
According to new IOM figures, 22,419 people have been ‘pulled-back’ to Libya from the Mediterranean so far in 2021, compared with 11,891 in the whole of 2020. The civilian rescue vessel SEA-EYE 4 has been released after three months of detention by Sicilian...
Joint Statement: Current Priorities for an EU Response to the Situation in Afghanistan
As European NGOs working on asylum and migration and Afghan Diaspora organisations in Europe, we are alarmed about the situation in Afghanistan and concerned above all about the security of the people of Afghanistan, both those within the country and those displaced...