2019

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21 October 2019

MALTA: Migrants' detention beyond 10 weeks 'on health grounds' is unlawful

"The detention of migrants for more than 10 weeks on the basis of health laws was unlawful and the migrants should be released, a court has ruled."

21 October 2019

SPAIN: Attacks on ECCHR partner lawyer Gonzalo Boye

"Spanish authorities have searched the home of our colleague and lawyer Gonzalo Boye, legal representative of Carles Puigdemont and several former Catalan ministers. The action taken by the Audiencia Nacional – a centralized court with jurisdiction over the Spanish territory – in our assessment is based on the assumed identification of Mr. Boye with his clients’ cause, the Catalan independence movement."

21 October 2019

Swiss election: Greens gain while far-right loses ground

"The Greens made strong gains in Switzerland's election on Sunday while right-wing populist party SVP lost ground, final results showed."

19 October 2019

Bosnia Should Immediately Close Inhumane Migrant Camp - Relocate Migrants to Decent Accommodation Elsewhere

"Over a year after Human Rights Watch first criticized Bosnia’s failure to protect the basic rights of migrants and asylum seekers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is warning of a fast-developing humanitarian emergency in a makeshift camp near the border with Croatia. Over 20,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Bosnia since January 2019, but violent and unlawful pushbacks from Croatia have created a bottleneck on the border, leaving many stranded in unsafe conditions."

19 October 2019

Analysis 4 of the revised Brexit withdrawal agreement: citizens’ rights

"The issue of the acquired rights of EU27 and UK citizens has long been a focus of this blog. It’s also one of the key issues in the debate over Brexit."

18 October 2019

Almost 7,500 people forcibly returned to Libya in 2019

"The partly EU-financed and trained Libyan Coast Guard has intercepted 7,404 refugees and migrants at sea and returned them to the war-torn country so far this year, according to figures from the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Many are then sent to notorious Libyan detention centres amid an ongoing backlash from human-rights organisations."

18 October 2019

What if technologies replaced humans in elderly care?

"Europeans are ageing. In 2016, there were 3.3 people of working-age for each citizen over 65 years. By 2070, this will fall to only two. As the population lives longer, our care needs grow, but fewer people will be available to deliver them. Could assistive technologies (ATs) help us to meet the challenges of elderly care?"

18 October 2019

EU: Croatia’s Schengen Accession: Reinforcing Legal Red Lines Not Borders

"A tussle is taking place in the Commission over the accession of Croatia to Schengen – membership of the Schengen zone through accession to the Schengen treaty. On one side, President Juncker; on the other, a handful of Member States, technical experts, and a mounting pile of evidence about violations at the border."

17 October 2019

GREECE: Report on Rights Violations & Resistance in Lesvos - October 2019

"For over three years we have been reporting on the systematic denial of rights to migrants in Lesvos, and each report includes a laundry list of violations that only seem to worsen over time. The containment policy - at first opposed by UN agencies, NGOs and civil society - has become all but the norm in Lesvos."

17 October 2019

End the Killing - For a European Policy of Human Rights

"We call on the European Council and the EU governments to:..."

17 October 2019

European Parliament Study: European Council conclusions: A rolling check-list of commitments to date

"This latest edition of the overview of European Council conclusions to date, presented in the form of a rolling check-list, is produced by the European Council Oversight Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), the European Parliament's in-house research service and think tank."

17 October 2019

Desperate African refugees pay to get into Libyan jails - UNHCR

"African refugees in Libya are so desperate that some are bribing their way into detention centres in the hope of eventually being resettled out of the war-torn, lawless country, the United Nations said on Thursday."

16 October 2019

Turkish Syria offensive raises Greek fears of new refugee influx - EU states divided over giving Turkey further funds to deter refugees from making crossing

"Turkey’s military push into Syria has sparked fears in Greece, already struggling with an alarming surge in the number of asylum seekers, of a new wave of migration to Europe."

15 October 2019

GREECE: Lesvos protesters said to prevent Spanish charity ship from docking

"Protesters on the island of Lesvos, in the eastern Aegean, have reportedly prevented the Open Arms – a humanitarian vessel operated by Spanish NGO Proactive – from docking at the northern harbor of Skala Sykamias, reports said."

15 October 2019

The Rescue - A flimsy raft, more than 100 souls, and three teenage heroes - or are they pirates?

"Abdalla Bari was hungry. It was the morning of March 26, 2019, and Bari and more than 100 other people were floating in a 30-foot-long rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea, somewhere in the expanse of water between North Africa and Italy. Men straddled the boat’s edge, each with one foot dangling above the water and the other inside the dinghy."

15 October 2019

GREECE: Fire in Samos Refugee Camp

"Last night there was a fire on the island of Samos, a fire that ripped through the temporary homes of human beings living in ‘the jungle’, the overfill space relied upon to house men, women and children in a Reception and Identification Centre that can no longer cope with the numbers of refugees stuck on the island waiting for an asylum meeting."

15 October 2019

76 rescued migrants brought to Malta, as Italy rescues 180 more

"More than 75 migrants stranded at sea were rescued by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) on Tuesday and brought to shore."

14 October 2019

EU: European States urged to do more to protect and support child refugees and migrants

"European States must step up their efforts to protect child refugees and migrants who have endured not only difficult and dangerous journeys but continue to face risks and hardship once in Europe, including unsafe accommodation, being incorrectly registered as adults, and a lack of appropriate care, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has urged."

14 October 2019

Conservatives sweep Polish vote, put EU rule of law to the test

"Right-wing ruling Law and Justice (PiS/ECR) won the parliamentary elections in Poland by a large margin, obtaining 43.6% of the votes, while the main opposition bloc – centre-left Civic Platform (KO) – obtained 27.4%, according to latest numbers published by the National Electoral Commission (PKW)."

 

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