This week ECRE publishes two charts showing the procedural labyrinth facing asylum applicants in Europe, should proposed reforms go ahead. Scenario 1 shows the “regular” asylum procedures for people who were authorised to enter – the majority of applicants. Scenario 2...
About 100 people remain missing at sea following two shipwrecks off Libya and off Tunisia as bodies wash up ashore. New details about a pushback case to Libya reveal it was organised and payed for by Malta. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs visits Tunisia to reach a...
In just 36 hours 8,000 people, at least a quarter of them children, have arrived to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco amid a diplomatic stand-off between the two countries over hospital treatment in La Rioja of exiled Western Sahara independence leader. The...
An asylum-seeker caught steering a boat across the English Channel was cleared of smuggling charges after spending 17 months in jail. Immigrants and trafficking victims were also detained in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time in prisons due to Covid-19...
In this Policy Paper ECRE offers an assessment of existing accountability mechanisms in regard to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and recommendations to systematically use and strengthen these scrutiny tools, as well as to add new accountability...
The updated AIDA Country Report on Portugal provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum seekers and content of international protection in 2020. A total of 1,002...
In the report “Pushing Back Responsibility. Rights Violations as a “Welcome Treatment” at Europe’s borders”, Protecting Rights at Borders (PRAB) has collected testimonies of 2,162 cases of pushbacks, including chain pushbacks over multiple countries. The report covers...
Yet another asylum seeker had to stand trial over charges of being a human smuggler and of being responsible for a lethal shipwreck he survived. He was sentenced to 146 years imprisonment. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights urged the Greek authorities...
The European Commission urges relocation to other member states from Italy where the number of arrivals has surpassed 11,000 in 2021. According to Missing Migrants project more than 600 people have lost their lives on the Mediterranean since January attempting to...
The main outcome of UK Home Secretary Priti Patel’s £33.6m investment in border control measures is to fill the pockets of human smugglers operating in northern France. Meanwhile, the situation in France continues to deteriorate, with withdrawal of protection...