Including:
26 October 2020
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."
23 October 2020
HumanRights360 presents its latest report on its work at the border of Evros, for the period May-September 2020.
22 October 2020
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.
22 October 2020
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.
21 October 2020
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.
20 October 2020
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.
20 October 2020
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.
16 October 2020
In the Sangonera detention centre near the city of Murcia, 40 immigration detainees have gone on hunger strike to demand they be released.
15 October 2020
The EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum reiterated the long-standing priority for the EU and its member states to work more closely with “third countries” to control migration. In practice, this has led to serious abuses and even deaths, as smugglers engage in increasingly-complex and dangerous circumvention of border controls and police operations. Nevertheless, the EU is pushing ahead with new initiatives seeking to formalise cooperation with Balkan and African states on anti-migrant smuggling operations.
15 October 2020
Two recent Amnesty International reports have highlighted the role played by EU institutions, agencies and member states in facilitating 'pull-backs' by the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG). Amnesty argues that collaboration with the LCG in this way violates international law. In a response to Amnesty, Frontex has avoided any meaningful engagement with the issues raised.
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