On July 12, during the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, MEPs debated on the need for EU action on search and rescue in the Mediterranean and voted a resolution about the situation in Lebanon.
On July 10, EU foreign ministers approved the launch of a new naval operation in the central Mediterranean and the end of the former mission, Operation Sophia. The new operation will use air, satellite and sea resources to monitor the UN arms embargo. Austria and Hungary were opposed for fear of making migration more attractive (increasing the chances of being rescued).
On July 6, the European Court of Justice ruled that there are two requirements for refugee status to be cancelled : (i) a final conviction for a severe crime, (ii) the refugee must also represent a significant danger to the population. In this case, the authorities are entitled to revoke refugee status, provided that the measure is proportionate. In this case, refugees are not necessarily deported.
On July 4, European commissioner Ylva Johansson visited Lampedusa’s hotspot and she reaffirmed that migration was “not just an Italian challenge, but a European challenge“.
Following on from the EU’s proposals to Tunisia, discussions are underway on a possible new partnershipbetween Egypt and the EU to stem illegal immigration and dismantle criminal human trafficking networks.
On June 29 and 30, at an EU summit in Brussels, the Pact on Migration was at the heart of the discussion. Hungary and Poland, who voted against at the beginning of June, are now calling for the text to be validated unanimously. In fact, they reject the solidarity mechanism, which requires them to pay a financial contribution if they refuse to receive asylum seekers arriving from the south of Europe (in a country subject to migratory pressure).
The human rights chief of European Union border agency Frontex said the agency could suspend operations in EU member state Greece over chronic human rights abuses against migrants, the New York Times reported on June 27.
From June 28 to 30, Alarm Phone activists read out over 1,000 of these distress emails that the network has been sending out since the beginning of 2023 during a non-stop 48-hour performance in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. Police intervened to stop the action because of “noise complaints”.
The European Commission dismissed international calls for a transparent and independent investigation concerning Greek authorities’ behaviour in the Pylos shipwreck.
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