Image: Nabi Amini By Wiebke Judith Five years after the Islamist Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the German government is their closest partner for co-operation in the EU. Germany’s main goal: increasing deportations regardless of human rights risks. More than...
By Stanzen Lèh Jelsma When boats capsized, when engines failed and when people drifted between life and death, Tommy Olsen’s number was often one of the last remaining points of contact. On 16 March, this line fell silent. On that day, Norwegian humanitarian worker...
By Catherine Warin and Anna Smolinska On 26 March, MEPs will vote on the mandate to enter into interinstitutional negotiations regarding the future ‘Return Regulation’. There is a consensus on the need to modernise the EU’s legal framework for removing unauthorised...
By Reshad Jalali The existing EU Return Directive (2008) – although far from perfect (see ECRE’s previous analysis) – does contain a number of safeguards intended to prevent arbitrary decision-making, guarantee access to justice and protect individuals from being...
By Helene Asselman One may wonder why it still comes as a surprise that measures aimed at deterring people on the move not only cross every boundary of decency but increasingly also breach legal limits. However, many a lawyer both in and outside the migration sector...
By Minos Mouzourakis Painful questions have gripped Greece since the night of 3 February, when 15 people lost their lives and another 24 suffered severe injuries after a Greek Coast Guard vessel collided with a boat carrying refugees off the coast of the island of...