Latest Migration News
On the move
Recent highlights
- The central Mediterranean remains the scene of human tragedies that are repeated month after month. On 1 May, 160 migrants were rescued in the central Mediterranean by two humanitarian ships. During one of the rescue operations, 5 people were recovered from the water after jumping from one of the Libyan coastguard boats.
- On the Eastern Mediterranean route, illegal pushbacks are multiplying. On 9 and 10 May, the Cypriot authorities illegally pushed back two boats attempting to reach the island. A total of 62 people were on board. The migrants were sent back directly to Syria, following a “cooperation” agreement between Cyprus and the new President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
- The migration route between the north of France and the United Kingdom was also marked by tragedy. On the night of 11 to 12 May, one person died and six others were found injured after trying to cross the Channel. Several rescue operations took place over the weekend and a total of 192 migrants were rescued.
Positive News
- On 25 March, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Greece following the murder of an Iraqi minor on 29th August 2015, killed by a bullet by a coast guard during a boat check at sea. The Court found that the coast guard had not shown the “required vigilance”.
- On 21 March, the Greek Council of State issued a decision prohibiting the country from considering Turkey a so-called “safe country” for refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. Until now, Greece has systematically rejected all asylum applications from these nationals, denying human rights violations in Turkey.
EU updates
- A few days before the parliamentary elections on 18 May, the centre-right executive of Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced that it wanted to deport 18,000 so-called irregular migrants. This measure could affect a total of 110,000 people.
- On 12 May, Statewatch published an article criticising the agreement reached between EU member states and some third countries on the creation of “return centres”. According to a document drafted in February by the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the EU would like the modalities of these centres to be defined in a flexible way, in order to avoid them being invalidated by the courts, as was the case for the Italian centres established in Albania.
- On 7 May, the European Commission announced that it would refer Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU, which in 2023 had adopted a decree allowing the release of thousands of smugglers on condition that they leave the country within 72 hours. As a result of the decree aimed at defying the EU’s migration policy, 2400 smugglers were released and deported from Hungary.
Countries
Return Mania
Mapping policies and practices in the EuroMed region
The research provides an overview of the current return policies and practices in the Euro-Mediterranean region and sheds a light on the violations of human rights entailed by this “return obsession”, which is shared across Member States, EU institutions and third countries alike. The report covers national return policies and practices in the Mashreq and Maghreb regions, focusing on returns from Turkey and Lebanon to Syria, and on readmission agreements between Italy and Tunisia, Spain and Morocco as well as France and Morocco. It also looks at returns from Germany and Italy to Egypt. Read More