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EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS
A shipwreck off Lanzarote brings the overall number of deaths of people trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe close to 1100. Meanwhile, five states agreed to distribute 88 people rescued by the NGO vessel Alan Kurdi.
At least nine people died in a shipwreck off the coast of the canary island of Lanzarote, Spain. According to four survivors, there were up to 16 people on the boat that capsized in a rocky area close to Caleta Caballo. Spanish authorities have recovered nine bodies so far. This is one of the most lethal shipwrecks in the Canary archipelago since February 2009, when 24 people died.
Last week, the Spanish maritime rescue service Salvamento Marítimo rescued 62 people, including three children, from a boat that was drifting in the Alboran Sea within bad weather conditions. They were transferred to the port of Motril (Granada) on Friday, November 1.
On Sunday, an Italian offshore supply vessel disembarked 151 people in the port of Pozzallo, Sicily, after rescuing them in water off Libya a day earlier. Also on Sunday and after eight days stranded at sea, the rescue vessel Alan Kurdi, operated by the NGO Sea-Eye, was allowed to disembark 88 rescued people in the Italian port of Taranto. The permission came after four other EU Member States agreed to take in a share of those rescued. Germany and France will take 60, Portugal will take five, Ireland will take two and Italy will take the remaining 13. During the rescue operation in international waters in the central Mediterranean last weekend, a Libyan force fired warning shots and aimed mounted guns at the crew and those being rescued.
Two weeks ago, far right along with conservative forces blocked a resolution in the European Parliament calling for proactive Search and Rescue (SAR) operations in the Mediterranean Sea.
Missing Migrants has recorded 1090 deaths of people trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean in 2019.
For further Information:
- ECRE, Med: Armed Intervention against Rescue Ship and Pull-Back to Libya, October 2019
- ECRE, Med: Alarming Numbers of Interceptions, October 2019
- ECRE, Med: More than 20 Feared Dead after Shipwreck off Lampedusa, October 2019
- ECRE, Med: At 6th Anniversary of Lampedusa Shipwreck Death Toll Reaches 1000, October 2019
- ECRE, Operation Sophia: Ships Remain Suspended while Support of Libyan ‘Coast Guard’ Continues, September 2019
- ECRE, Mediterranean: Over 400 Rescued while Deaths Continue, September 2019, September 2019
- ECRE, Stand-offs Continue at the Mediterranean Despite New Government in Italy, September 2019
- ECRE, MED: Silver Lining Looms on the Horizon while NGOs Endure Salvini’s ‘Final Blow’, September 2019
- ECRE, Deaths and Standoffs on the Med Reinforce Calls for State-led SAR, August 2019
- ECRE, Mediterranean: Deaths, Rescues and Political Manoeuvres Continue, June 2019
- ECRE, UN Agencies Raise Alarm over Libya on Land and Sea, June 2019
- ECRE, Interception and Return of 170 Refugees to Libya, May 2019
- ECRE, From Bad to Worse for Migrants Trapped in Detention in Libya, May 2019
- ECRE, Last Breath of Operation Sophia Should Push Coalition of the Willing, March 2019
- ECRE, A Contingency Plan for Disembarkation and Relocation, January 2019
  The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warns that migrants are even more likely to lose their life on the land routes in Africa attempting to reach the Mediterranean than attempting to cross it. Yet alternatives remain limited. In Libya hundreds of vulnerable people were sleeping rough outside the Gathering and Departure Facility (GDF) in Tripoli as according to UNHCR the transit centre is already overcrowded and there is a lack of available resettlement places globally.
While the actual number is impossible to establish the International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirmed in September that more than 7,400 people have been recorded dead on African soil since 2014 on route to Europe or the Arabian Peninsula. Causes of death include “starvation, dehydration, exposure to harsh weather conditions, vehicle accidents and violence at the hands of smugglers”. According to IOM 19,000 people are estimated to have lost their life in the same period attempting to cross the Mediterranean but also there given insecure statistics the actual number could be significantly higher.
In Libya, hundreds of people, the majority released from the Abu Salim detention centre located at the frontline of the raging armed conflict in Tripoli gathered outside the GDF. According to UNHCR “with the hope to be hosted and resettled from there to third countries”. However, the agency states that: “The deteriorating living conditions at the GDF, where the infrastructure and services are stretched thin, make it impossible to take more people in, even the very vulnerable refugees currently detained that UNHCR has already identified as in urgent need of evacuation or resettlement.”
2,300 people have transited through the GDF in Tripoli since it opened in December 2018 as a transit facility for vulnerable refugees to be resettled, reunified with family, returned to their home country or a country of previous asylum. However, with just 55,000 resettlement places available globally and 45,000 refugees and asylum seekers just in Libya, according to UNHCR “it cannot be the only solution to the plight” and the agency urges “the Libyan authorities and the international community to work together and find long term solutions to this dire humanitarian situation”.
For further information:
- ECRE, Operation Sophia: Ships Remain Suspended while Support of Libyan ‘Coast Guard’ Continues, September 2019
- ECRE, Op-ed: Libya: Humanitarian Solutions Won’t Solve Political Problems, September 2019
- ECRE, EU Praise of Libyan Coast Guard out of Touch with Reality, September 2019
- ECRE, Mediterranean: Over 400 Rescued while Deaths Continue, September 2019
- ECRE, UN Agencies Raise Alarm over Libya on Land and Sea, June 2019
- ECRE, Interception and Return of 170 Refugees to Libya, May 2019
- ECRE, From Bad to Worse for Migrants Trapped in Detention in Libya, May 2019
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Federal Constitutional Court (BVG) strengthened the rights of asylum seekers subject to the Dublin procedure in two important cases concerning Italy and Greece. Notably, the BVG confirmed a ruling of the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) holding that the living conditions people would face in the receiving country after a successful asylum application need to be taken into account.
In the first case, the BVG halted the Dublin transfer of a child and a mother to Italy. In 2014, the ECtHR had ruled that families with children can only be returned to Italy, if they have received an individual assurance that reception conditions will be adequate. The Federal Office for Migration and Asylum (BAMF) no longer followed this ruling since the Italian government gave a general assurance in January 2019. The BVG now decided that as a consequence of the Salvini Decree”, in effect since autumn 2018, the humanitarian conditions in Italy cannot be assumed to be adequate for families with children and there is a risk that the child and their mother could become homeless.
Another Dublin case concerned an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who should be returned to Greece after receiving an assurance by the Greek government that reception conditions during his asylum procedure would be adequate. In March 2019, the ECtHR ruled that courts have to take into account the living conditions an asylum seeker would face after their application was successful. In line with this ruling the BVG halted the transfer because the ruling of the administrative court had not examined whether the asylum seeker after receiving a status of international protection would be able to lead a decent existence.
Until October 2019, Germany returned almost 1900 people to Italy. Ulla Jelpke, MP from the German left party Die Linke demanded an end to the forced relocation under Dublin. Refugees should have the right to choose the country in which they want to lodge their asylum application, for example according to language skills and personal ties. EU Member States taking a disproportionate burden can receive a financial compensation, Jelpke commented.
The number of asylum applications in Germany has steadily decreased since 2016 and is expected to drop to around 140,000 for 2019. Taking into account in-merit decisions, more than half of people seeking asylum in Germany were granted a status of international protection at first instance in 2019.
For further information:
- AIDA, managed by ECRE, Asylum Decisions In The First Half Of 2019: Unlocking Statistics, August 2019
- AIDA, managed by ECRE, The implementation of the Dublin III Regulation in 2018, March 2019
- ECRE, Policy Note: To Dublin or not to Dublin?, November 2018
- AIDA, Country Report Italy, 2017 Update, March 2018
- ECRE, Germany: Violence in Deportation Procedures, February 2019
- ECRE, Italy: Vulnerable Dublin Returnees at Risk of Destitution*, December 2018
ECRE member Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has published its periodic report on the right to asylum in the Republic of Serbia, containing an overview of key concerns relating to the asylum procedure in the country during the period from July to September 2019.
The report is based on information the BCHR team collected while providing advice to asylum-seekers within the project “Support to Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Serbia” supported by UNHCR. It summarizes relevant figures and offers a detailed analysis of decisions of the asylum authorities at first and second instance. BCHR raises particular concerns as regards the quality of decisions, referring to inappropriate and incorrect examination of applications. This includes not sufficiently taking into account the personal and general circumstances surrounding the application and dismissing applications on the basis of the safe third country concept under the Law on Asylum which is no longer in force.
The report further provides an overview of key issues relating to the integration of refugees, which also results from the non-alignment of various laws with the Law on Asylum and Temporary Protection (LATP) of 2018. The inability to naturalise, the non-issuance of identification and travel documents and the lack of access to certain benefits are listed as particular obstacles to integration. BCHR provides and addresses concrete recommendations to the relevant authorities to improve the situation of refugees in the country.
From January to September 2019, a total of 9,054 persons expressed their intention to seek asylum in Serbia, out of which 8,536 were men and 518 were women. Most of them originated from Afghanistan (2,736), followed by Pakistan (2,557), Iraq (883), Bangladesh (784) and Syria (693).
For more information:
On 4 November 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) granted interim measures under Rule 39 of the Rules of the Court, ordering Greece to release two unaccompanied children from detention (“protective custody”) and to transfer them to suitable accommodation.
Due to severe shortages in reception capacity, Greece continues to detain unaccompanied children in unsuitable conditions in police stations and other facilities until a place is made available for them. 257 children are currently detained under “protective custody” according to latest figures.
The two children, represented by Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), were detained in the cell of a police station in Attica for more than ten days without access to outdoor spaces and to their belongings. Detention conditions in Greek police stations are widely acknowledged as inhuman and degrading, including by the ECtHR’s rulings in H.A. and Sh.D. earlier this year.
The Strasbourg Court has granted similar interim measures last month in a case brought by Arsis concerning 20 unaccompanied children detained in the police station of Kolonos, of which 14 were held under “protective custody”. In March 2019, the Court issued interim measures in the case of two girls, represented by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), held in the Tavros pre-removal detention centre.
The European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR) has also ordered the immediate release of unaccompanied children from “protective custody”, following a collective complaint brought by ECRE and the International Commission of Jurists, with the support of GCR.
For further information:
*This information was first published by AIDA, managed by ECRE.
Asylum seekers in the Netherlands are confronted with a shortage of reception places, in addition to long delays in accessing the procedure.
As of 28 October 2019, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) counted 26,975 accommodation places. The Agency estimates that as many as 10,000 additional reception places will be needed as of January 2020 for the country to be able to house asylum seekers.
The Dutch Minister of Security and Justice has attributed the insufficient reception capacity to an increase in the number of arrivals in the Netherlands since the summer of 2019.
The gaps in reception capacity are linked to extremely long waiting times facing people seeking asylum. Due to incorrect forecasts on the number of new asylum claims and a reduction of staff at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), almost 8,000 applicants have been waiting for months for the start of their asylum procedure. According to the Dutch Council for Refugees, approximately 800 of those have faced delays exceeding one year and reaching 20 months before their first interview with the IND in some cases. Asylum seekers are not provided with sufficient information on the length of those waiting periods.
The long waiting times have resulted in people staying in overcrowded reception centres (“pre-POL”) under unsatisfactory living conditions.
For further information:
*This information was first published by AIDA, managed by ECRE.
EUROPEAN COURTS AND INTERNATIONAL MECHANISMS
In the Opinion issued by Eleanor Sharpston, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court), Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have failed to fulfil their obligation under EU law by refusing to implement the mandatory Relocation Decisions from 2015. The Opinion is not binding but provides a proposition to the Court and is regarded as an influential advice.
In order to respond with solidarity to the increase in arrival of migrants and refugees in the summer of 2015, the Council of the EU adopted two decisions to relocate a total of 160 000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other Member States within two years. Despite the unsuccessful legal challenge by Slovakia and Hungary in front of the Court, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic did not implement the decisions. In December 2017, the European Commission brought actions for failure to fulfil legal obligations before the Court against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
In her Opinion, Eeanor Sharpston firstly rejects the argument of the three countries that complying with the Relocation Decisions would invoke security concerns as Member States preserve the right to refuse individual relocation cases when an applicant is deemed a threat. She highlights that a spirit of trust and cooperation must prevail.
Secondly, the argument by the three countries that the risks inherent in processing large numbers of asylum seekers absolves them from their legal obligation should be rejected. The Relocation Decisions include a mechanism addressing complex issues and logistics, which can lead to a temporary suspension of the legal obligation to implement the Decisions. This means that the unilateral decision to not comply at all to the implementation was not necessary.
Thirdly, the Advocate General points out three important principles of the EU: the ‘rule of law’, the duty of sincere cooperation and the principle of solidarity. According to her, non-compliance with EU legal obligations on the ground of being unwelcome or unpopular among the national population “is a first step towards a breakdown of the orderly and structured society governed by the rule of law”. The duty among Member States of sincere cooperation has to be respected and implemented as other Member States are entitled to expect compliance with due diligence. Lastly, the principle of solidarity might include burden sharing, which needs to be accepted by Member States.
For further information:
REPORTS & NGO ACTIONS
Last October, the EU institutions have resumed discussions on the new Asylum and Migration Fund (AMF) proposal, part of the wider negotiations on the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027) of the EU. Together with a number of other NGOs, UNHCR and IOM, ECRE has issued a statement calling for a better use of EU resources in asylum and migration policies.
Despite a substantial increase in funding proposed by the European Commission, the future of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund remains unclear, given that member states have only reached a partial agreement on the regulation, which does not address specific budgeting to the different priorities of the fund.
Furthermore, delays and implementation gaps for EU-funded programmes in 2021 are very likely. In fact, a considerable amount of AMIF is managed between the Commission and EU member states and requires the general agreement to be translated into national programmes, which risks to provoke serious delays in the allocation of the funds. This would undermine the provision of services especially in those member states which highly rely on AMIF for financing their asylum and migration policies, unless adequate investments are not deployed from national budgets.
To mitigate these risks and ensure that member states’ national programmes will deploy more effective resources for more humane asylum and migration policies in Europe, ECRE and the co-signatories have asked the co-legislators to:
(I) Address, within the use of the fund, the groups which are most vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse such as human trafficking victims, regardless of their residence status; Fund, through AMIF, the establishment of case-management based alternatives to detention as well as psychosocial and mental health support for migrants and refugees;
(II) Avoid the use of AMIF to build new detention centres and to detain children or their families;
(III) Limit the amount of AMIF funding spent outside the EU and ensure that this complies with human rights standards and is inherently linked to the internal dimension of asylum and migration policies;
(IV) Include an effective partnership principle in the AMIF regulation, which grants meaningful and inclusive participation of NGOs and migrant-led organisations in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EU-funded actions on asylum, migration and integration;
(V) Establish a coordination mechanism ensuring the complementarity between AMIF and the other EU funds active in integration policies such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), as well as a 30% minimum allocation requirement for the development of integration activities.
In the light of the vote in the European parliament on the AMIF resolution, the above mentioned organisation had prepared another joint statement in February 2019.
For further Information:
In its latest policy brief, “Getting Back on Track” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) calls for the renewal of the EU Action Plan on Integration to complement and coordinate efforts aimed at fostering the integration of refugees and asylum-seekers in the EU.
While the power to legislate on integration remains in the hands of individual member states, the 2016 Action Plan was seen as a critical step towards shaping a European approach to integration. Following its expiry last year, refugees and asylum-seekers living in the EU continue to face specific and persistent challenges in their integration pathways. The IRC’s brief maintains that supporting their transition into their new communities is essential if the EU is to continue to be guided by its founding values of unity and solidarity, and if member states are serious about the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within their own borders.
First, the brief highlights that the proposed restructuring of integration funding under the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) demands renewed partnerships at different levels including through bolstered and more visible collaboration between departments within the Commission. Also, the European Parliament, the private sector and national authorities should be involved as much as possible. While buy-in from member states is key, legitimacy for actions would also be significantly strengthened by formally including refugee-led organisations in consultations concerning the evaluation, renewal and monitoring of the Action Plan and EU integration policies more generally.
Secondly, the IRC underlines that early labour market intervention is central to achieving better overall integration outcomes for displaced populations, and asylum-seekers in particular. In this way, a renewed Action Plan could build on the work of its predecessor by expanding the provision of EU linguistics support, targeting low skilled refugee adults and encouraging better job matching in relation to the soft skills of refugees and asylum-seekers. They also call on the Commission to challenge misconceptions related to refugee and asylum-seeker employment through awareness-raising campaigns and to explore pilot strength-based and client-focused approaches to labour market integration.
Finally, the brief emphasises that an updated EU Action Plan on Integration can serve as an effective tool to foster a long-term approach to the integration of refugee women in the EU. It highlights the considerable obstacles and discriminatory structures faced by (refugee) women, and that there is a scarcity in disaggregated data on the gender employment gap at the EU and member state level. Alongside funding priorities targeting refugee women in the next MFF, the brief recommends prioritising structural measures such as national action plans and non-discrimination legislation in member states. These efforts should involve collaboration with refugee and women-led organisations as a priority.
INTERVIEW
Interview with Eero Janson Chair of the Estonian Refugee Council and representative for the Nordic Baltic region at the ECRE board
ECRE is an alliance of 104 NGOs across 41 European countries and its diverse membership ranges from large INGOs with global presence to small organisations of dedicated activists. Members’ work covers the full circle of displacement from zones of conflict, to the dangerous routes and arrivals in Europe, to long-term inclusion in European societies, with their activities including humanitarian relief, social service provision, legal assistance, litigation, monitoring policy and law, advocacy and campaigning. We decided to share some of their voices.
How did you become involved in protecting the human rights of those displaced?
I joined the Estonian Refugee Council (ERC) back in early 2013 when the organisation was still in its infancy. Although I have never regarded myself as an activist, issues of identity, migration, and social justice have long been on my agenda. When I was invited to join ERC by a friend of mine and work on refugee issues – at the time really a political non-issue in Estonia – I didn’t think long before accepting. I took up the leadership position two years later, only to find myself in the middle of the beginning of the so-called European ‘refugee crisis’ in the very first month. There has not been a quiet day since, be it for political turmoil at home or deepening of armed conflicts abroad.
What is the single most inspiring experience of your career?
I travel rather frequently to our humanitarian programmes outside of Europe to train and monitor, and the most inspiring moments come from these visits. When you see resilience of people affected by extreme stress, finding solutions even in the most impossible situations – this resourcefulness and strength is truly amazing. Nevertheless, not everybody can cope the same way and this is where humanitarian action comes in. During my visits I’ve had long conversations with the people who have benefitted from our local-level programmes in eastern Ukraine, for example. I vividly remember one Roma man in a rural area in Donetsk oblast who had bought a cow using the livelihoods cash grant which came from our programme. He was utterly astonished by that aid and is probably the happiest person I’ve ever met. Sitting mostly behind a computer far from the conflict situations themselves, designing and planning projects targeting hundreds or even thousands of people, these conversations are just a necessity in order to understand the context but also to stay motivated doing this work against all odds.
What is your main professional motivation?
Estonia has its own history of displacement, with more than 70, 000 people leaving the country on boats during the Second World War. Most of them found refuge in Sweden and Germany, later moving on to countries like Canada, USA, Australia. Being welcomed in these countries, refugees from Estonia established their communities in these countries which persist until this day. I think that ensuring the rights of strangers is the ultimate litmus test for the whole society, and we should look at it from under the “veil of ignorance”: how would we want to be received and welcomed if we were in the shoes of refugees ourselves? All in all, I want my children to live in an Estonia that accepts and celebrates differences and doesn’t waste its time or political power for fearmongering and scapegoating of refugees and other minority groups. I want to leave behind a better society than the one I was thrown into.
FEATURED CAMPAIGNS
Choose Respect: Together We Can Tackle Anti-Migrant Hate Speech. Hate speech against migrants and refugees is all too common, both online and in the real world. But it isn’t always easy to know how to react effectively – and it’s even harder to respond in a way which changes attitudes. In the run-up to elections, politics is a frequent topic of debate. But if the discussion turns nasty – either around the dinner table or on your social media feed – here are some tips to help you make a constructive contribution to a more positive discourse.
EVENTS
- 8-9 November 2019, Sevilla, Advanced ELENA Course on International protection in Europe: persistent challenges and litigation opportunities, ECRE, registration by 26 September 2019
- 26 November 2019, Sydney, Kaldor Centre Annual Conference 2019 Good decisions: Achieving fairness in refugee law, policy and practice, UNSW Sydney
- 4 December 2019, Dorigny, Lausanne (CH): Conference on Comparative Migration Law: Methodological Challenges and Future Horizons, Swiss Institute for Comparative Law, registration open
VACANCIES
CALLS FOR PAPERS & OPEN CALLS
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