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The UNHCR has issued a paper setting out certain "practical considerations for fair and fast border procedures and solidarity". A proposal for procedures to swiftly assess asylum claims whilst individuals are detained in facilities at the EU's border is a key feature of the EU's new Pact on Migration and Asylum.
On 5 October the Italian council of ministers adopted a decree that reverses a number of policies introduced by former interior minister Matteo Salvini. Residency permits will once again be available on humanitarian grounds, and asylum-seekers will have the right to access services offered through the country's reception system. However, the government has maintained fines for the crews of ships carrying out search and rescue activities, merely reducing the penalty from one million to €50,000. Parliamentary oversight may see changes to the new rules.
EU border agency Frontex has been accused of direct involvement in at least two pushback operations in the Aegean Sea, and of being in close proximity to four others, following an investigation by a number of media outlets.
Juraj Sajfert argues that a recent CJEU decision on national bulk data retention and collection practices is "a complex victory for the law enforcement community and a major step back in the Court’s data retention jurisprudence."
Large drones are heading to the skies above the Mediterranean, with both Italy and EU border agency Frontex recently agreeing multi-million euro contracts with private companies. The drones will be used for border surveillance, and in particular are like to assist with pull-backs to North Arican states.
The UK's second-largest police force is to stop prosecuting people caught with drugs intended for personal use, provided that they agree to participate in a drug education or treatment scheme.
Bulgaria is preventing the signature of an agreement allowing the deployment of Frontex teams in North Macedonia because "Bulgaria doesn’t recognise the language of North Macedonia as “Macedonian”, as the authorities in Skopje call it. Bulgarian scientists consider it as a dialect of Bulgarian."
Croatia and the USA have signed an agreement on the transfer of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, taken from air passengers during the booking process, as part of Croatia's ongoing attempts to achieve a visa waiver for its citizens.
Christos Pappas, the former deputy leader of Golden Dawn, has gone on the run to evade a 13-year prison sentence handed down against him. He is one of six former leaders of the far-right party sentenced to 13 years in prison; others have received lesser or suspended sentences. Thirty-eight of the 50 people convicted face prison.
The annual report on deaths during or following police contact has been published by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
HumanRights360 presents its latest report on its work at the border of Evros, for the period May-September 2020.
The European Court of Human Rights has found that the German authorities breached Article 3 (inhuman and degrading treatment) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights through a policy of random strip searches on prisoners, and a failure to provide legal aid for a prisoner to bring official liability proceedings when the domestic courts found the practice unlawful.
A new report by the migrants' rights organisation Movement for Justice, based on interviews with 20 people held in the Yarl's Wood detention centre after arriving in the UK by crossing the Channel, says that people are not being provided with legal advice until the very last minute - and that the government's claims that "lefty lawyers" are using last-minute appeals to frustrate deportations are in fact the only option many people have to prevent unlawful removal from the UK.
Francesco Maiani, Associate professor at the Centre of Comparative, European and International Law at the University of Lausanne, finds that the European Commission's proposal for an Asylum and Migration Management Regulation is largely old wine in new bottles.
Officer who shot Jermaine Baker will face proceedings for gross misconduct
The European Commission has recently decided on the categories of data subjects and of personal data that may be processed by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in the course of its investigations.
As part of the 'Pact on Migration and Asylum', the European Commission has proposed the creation of new independent monitoring mechanisms to investigate human rights abuses, such as pushbacks. However, while many see this as a necessity to prevent violations of individual rights in border control operations, there are a number of EU states who are likely to oppose the measure.
The German Presidency of the Council has drafted a set of conclusions on the topic of "potential terrorists" ("Gefährder"), setting out ways for the member states to improve information-sharing and coordinate risk assessment and analysis. With increased political pressure to share information on "potential" threats, who will be caught up in the net that shouldn't be?
The Greek military's 'Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Center' has prepared an analysis of training requirements for the military's role in integrated border management operations. Although the report acknowledges that border control is primarily a civilian task, it says that more training should be given to armed forces in the EU, and that the EU should adopt a 'Common Core Curriculum' on the issue.
A French activist who was prosecuted for transporting a man presumed to be in an irregular immigration situation has had his sentence overturned, but a fresh hearing at the Court of Appeal awaits.
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