WEEKLY BULLETIN
 

28 November 2024
 

 

EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS

• Egypt is on the verge of ratifying a controversial new asylum law.
• The European Ombudsman has found maladministration in the European Commission’s handling of documents relating to the EU-Tunisia agreement.
• Several civil society activists who support people on the move have been taken into custody as part of an “anti-terrorism” investigation in Tunisia.

MEDITERRANEAN

• All of the people who have spent the past six months trapped in the buffer zone that divides the north and south of the island of Cyprus have finally been allowed to enter the Republic of Cyprus.
• A new NGO report has revealed yet more evidence of pushbacks and abuse against people on the move in Greece.
• Italy has removed most of the staff from its migration centres in Albania.
• A court in Malta has announced that its decision about the country’s jurisdiction to prosecute the El Hiblu 3 will be delivered in January 2025.

 

NEWS FROM THE ECRE OFFICE

• AIDA Temporary Protection Compilation on 2023

UPCOMING EVENTS

OPEN JOB VACANCIES

ONGOING CAMPAIGNS

CALLS FOR PAPERS, PROJECT PROPOSALS, UNIVERSITY COURSES etc.

EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS

• Egypt is on the verge of ratifying a controversial new asylum law.
• The European Ombudsman has found maladministration in the European Commission’s handling of documents relating to the EU-Tunisia agreement.
• Several civil society activists who support people on the move have been taken into custody as part of an “anti-terrorism” investigation in Tunisia.

Egypt is on the verge of ratifying a controversial new asylum law. The new bill, which was approved “in principle” by the Egyptian parliament on 17 November, would transfer responsibility from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to an Egyptian government committee. According to Kelly Petillo from the European Council on Foreign Relations, the move has been viewed “quite negatively”. “Rights groups have been seeing it as a removal of ownership away from the UN and rights-based organisations,” she said. In a joint statement issued on 15 November, 22 human rights organisations expressed their “categorical rejection” of the new law. “The bill does not provide real solutions to the basic challenges faced by refugees, but rather increases the complexity of procedures and reduces their access to protection and services,” they wrote, adding that they were “keen on constructive engagement with the proposed Egyptian legislation, despite the Egyptian authorities’ constant disregard for this positive engagement”.

The European Ombudsman has found maladministration in the European Commission’s (EC) handling of documents relating to the EU-Tunisia agreement. The case involved a request by Dutch GreenLeft member of the European Parliament, Tinek Strike, for public access to documents relating to the preparation of a meeting between EC President Ursula von der Leyen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed that took place in June 2023 prior to the signing of the deal the following month. The EC replied that it could not identify any documents within the scope of the request and, following an appeal by Strik, the matter was eventually referred to the Ombudsman. In a decision that was published on 25 November, European Ombudsman Emma O’Reilly criticised the EC’s efforts to find the relevant documents as “unsatisfactory” and noted that “the preparation of such a high-level meeting (…) would necessarily have required prior exchanges within the Commission, and between the Commission and national authorities in the Member States”. Commenting on the Ombudsman’s decision, Strik X posted: “In line with the commitments by the new Commission to increase the transparency of its external migration policies, I urge [it] to use the response to announce a substantial increase of transparency”.

Several civil society activists who support people on the move have been taken into custody as part of an “anti-terrorism” investigation in Tunisia. According to Romdhane Ben Amor from the NGO the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES), the people who were detained on 16 November, included Abdallah El Saïd and a number of his associates from the NGO the Children of the Moon in Medenine (AELM). La Presse newspaper, which has been described as “close to the Tunisian government”, has reported that AELM was suspected of receiving “foreign funds (…) to assist sub-Saharan migrants to enter illegally onto Tunisian soil”. The Tunisian writer Hatem Nafti told the RFI radio station that El Saïd’s case was, unfortunately, just one of many. “There are other heads of associations who worked with migrants who are also in prison and also experienced similar treatment,” he said, adding: “He is the perfect target for the authorities, it would seem”. However, according to Ben Amor, the involvement of anti-terrorism investigators in El Saïd’s case represents a worrying development in the ongoing repression of civil society activists in Tunisia. “It is the first time authorities have used this against associations specialising in migration issues,” he said, describing the latest incident as part of a “new wave of even tougher repression” against migration activists.

Related articles

• EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS: Concerns about planned refugee law in Egypt ― EU-funded rescue centre in Libya finally set to open ― European Commission withholding outcomes of Tunisia human rights inquiry ― EU member states and NGOs condemn Israeli ban on UNRWA (November 2024)
• EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS: EU accused of funding forced deportations from Türkiye ― European Commission President calls for development of ‘return hubs’ ― Egypt and Tunisia reportedly reluctant to co-operate with EU on migration deals; Libya showing more ‘commitment” ― NGOs denounce Tunisia as ‘not a safe place’ for disembarking rescued people and call for end of EU-Tunisia migration co-operation ― More than 300,000 people flee into Syria from Lebanon (October 2024)

     

MEDITERRANEAN

• All of the people who have spent the past six months trapped in the buffer zone that divides the north and south of the island of Cyprus have finally been allowed to enter the Republic of Cyprus.
• A new NGO report has revealed yet more evidence of pushbacks and abuse against people on the move in Greece.
• Italy has removed most of the staff from its migration centres in Albania.
• A court in Malta has announced that its decision about the country’s jurisdiction to prosecute the El Hiblu 3 will be delivered in January 2025.

All of the people who have spent the past six months trapped in the buffer zone that divides the north and south of the island of Cyprus have finally been allowed to enter the Republic of Cyprus. According to a statement that was issued by Cypriot Deputy Minister of Migration Dr Nicholas Ioannides on 16 November, “the temporary camps that had been set up in [the Buffer Zone] have been evacuated”. “All the people who were there have now been transferred to third countries or exceptionally to the reception centre in Kofinou, so that the procedures for their transfer to third countries or their deportation can be carried out,” he added. Despite Ioannides’ declaration that the Cypriot government “will not accept these people in the Republic’s asylum system”, according to ECRE member organisation the Cyprus Refugee Council, it appears that all of them have actually been given access to asylum procedures.

The Cypriot government’s decision to allow the people to leave the buffer zone and enter Cypriot territory came after approximately six months during which it repeatedly rejected appeals to do so. According to the NGO Movement for Equality, Support and Anti-racism (KISA), the policy reversal was due to the intervention of the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) following an application that it had submitted jointly with the Italian NGO the Rule 39 Initiative. “Last Friday, the court asked the parties for clarification on several important points, directing the Cypriot government to provide information, including whether the applicants had access to asylum procedures in Cyprus, and whether the applicants are in danger of indirect refoulement in the buffer zone,” KISA said, adding: “This outstanding interlocutory result was the decisive factor that led to the government’s decision to finally allow all the refugees it had trapped in the buffer zone to enter the government-controlled areas”. However, the issue is not yet fully resolved for KISA. “Despite this positive development, we intend to maintain their applications unless the government decides to compensate them for the violations of their rights,” it concluded. Although the buffer zone has been the main entry point for people seeking asylum in Cyprus for many years, the Cypriot government’s reaction to the latest incident suggests that it has not necessarily accepted this reality. “Our position remains that the Green Line will not become a migrant corridor,” said Ioannides.

A new NGO report has revealed yet more evidence of pushbacks and abuse against people on the move in Greece. According to the new report by ECRE member organisation the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), Greek authorities have been undertaking illegal practices with impunity. It provides detailed descriptions of 12 pushback cases that occurred in the Evros border region in 2023 and highlights Greece’s “complete indifference” to the ECtHR despite the latter having issued more than 80 interim measures relating to the protection of newly arrived people there. The report also includes a number of recommendations for both Greek and EU authorities, including investigating “serious allegations of ill-treatment related to the Hellenic Police and the Hellenic Coast Guard at external borders” and launching infringement proceedings against the Greek state for “well-documented, long-term and systematic breaches of international and EU law in its treatment of asylum seekers”. In a press release issued to mark the launch of the report on 26 November, Alkistis Agrafioti Chatzigianni from GCR said: “We strongly believe that independent, prompt and effective investigations will increase accountability for rights violations at the EU’s external borders and can assist in ending this cycle of violence”.

Italy has removed most of the staff from its migration centres in Albania. Just over one month after the centres in Shëngjin and Gjadër opened on 11 October following months of delays, “dozens” of police officers and social workers who had been deployed to work in the two centres have reportedly been moved back to Italy. Although the centres are theoretically capable of receiving up to 3,000 asylum-seeking men per month, ongoing legal issues have meant that only 24 have actually been transferred to Albania, none of whom has stayed for more than 48 hours before being transferred to Italy. According to the German Press Agency (DPA), just seven of the staff employed by Medihspes, the company responsible for managing operations in the centres, will remain along with “some local-hire Albanian employees and an undisclosed number of Italian police officers”. Commenting on the latest development regarding the centres, which he described as an “epochal failure”, the leader of the opposition More Europe (+Eu) party, Riccardo Magi MP, declared on 23 November: “Mission accomplished! The government has succeeded in the effort to repatriate. Migrants? No, Italian operators sent to Albania, who will be returning home by the weekend”. Former prime minister and leader of the Italy Alive (IV) party, Matteo Renzi, X posted: “What remains in Albania is a colossal structure built by local entrepreneurs with Italian taxpayers’ money – destined to decay”. Elisabetta Piccolotti MP from the opposition Green and Left Alliance (AVS) said: “The government has failed knowing it would fail,” adding: “They have spent a mountain of money and played with people’s rights. This will remain in history as a shameful page for our country”. The Italian Ministry of the Interior has said that the centres will remain “operational and under surveillance” and that staffing levels had been reduced “in line with current needs”.

A court in Malta has announced that its decision about the country’s jurisdiction to prosecute the El Hiblu 3 will be delivered in January 2025. The Maltese Court of Criminal Appeal made its announcement on 6 November following an appeal hearing on the Valletta Criminal Court’s decision to reject an attempt by lawyers representing Abdul Kader, Amara Kromah and Abdalla Bari – the three young men who stand accused of hijacking an oil tanker when they were teenagers in March 2019 – to have the case against them dropped on the grounds that the incident had taken place off the coast of Tripoli and therefore outside Malta’s jurisdiction. Reacting to the announcement, the Free the El Hiblu 3 campaign said: “Instead of prosecuting them, the three young men should be celebrated for their actions in preventing the forceful and illegal return of 100 lives to unsafe and war-torn Libya. Now, in the sixth year of this emotional, psychological draining procedure, Malta has yet another chance during the appeal process to dismiss the charges before the affected get retraumatised by being sent back to prison”. “The serious allegations made by Malta’s Office of the Attorney General must now be dismissed entirely (…) It is not too late to rectify this grave injustice,” it added.

Related articles

• MEDITERRANEAN: Council of Europe calls for ‘immediate admission’ of people stranded in Cyprus buffer zone ― Italy to resume transfers to migration centres in Albania despite ongoing legal issues ― Court in Greece acquits asylum seeking minor of people smuggling charges (November 2024)
• MEDITERRANEAN: Confusion regarding future of Italian migration centres in Albania ― ECtHR criticises Malta’s regime again ― Asylum seekers still trapped in Cyprus buffer zone ― Cyprus President calls for normalisation of relations with Syria ― NGOs call on Greece to fix ‘dysfunctional’ registration system (October 2024)

     

AIDA Temporary Protection Compilation on 2023

The AIDA Temporary Protection Compilation on 2023 is a compilation of the annexes on temporary protection (TP) that were attached to the 2023 updates of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) country reports for 19 EU member states (MS) and three non-EU countries. It includes information on and analysis of the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) and similar national temporary protection regimes in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine which began on 24 February 2022 and the ensuing forced displacement, the Council of the EU activated the 2001 TPD for the first time on 4 March 2024, thus establishing a TP regime for people fleeing Ukraine. Two years into the implementation of the TPD, in a highly challenging context, many of the positive aspects of the reponse remain in place: the approach has largely continued to prioritise access to protection; in most cases, entitlement to a protection status is still automatic and immediate; despite waining leadership by the European Commission, EU institutions and agencies have continued to offer support and to encourage harmonised practices across the EU via operational guidelines, funding and on-the-ground assistance; and EU MS have maintained practices that support access to a wide spectrum of substantive rights for most of the displaced people. As of autumn 2024, over 4.1 million people continued to benefit from TP status in the EU.

Nonetheless, some challenges and implementation gaps persist and others have emerged with the prolongation of TP. First, even after two years of implementation, there are still varying interpretations and thus divergent policies and practices on certain aspects of the TPD and the Council Implementing Decision. Second, practical – and increasingly political – difficulties derived inter alia from an uneven distribution of TPD beneficiaries have persisted, entailing very different capacity and resources to be deployed by states. Third, after initially using the TP regime, some EU MS have restricted access to protection and the scope of rights for non-Ukrainian nationals. Finally,  there has been a general trend to reduce financial allowances for TPD beneficiaries. In some cases, but not across all states, a lack of access to adequate housing, education, and employment have remained or even increased. In general, some of the above-mentioned challenges, particularly the last one, reflect the lack of a long-term inclusion perspective. While such an approach based on longer-term integration would assist the displaced population, it remains highly sensitive for the government of Ukraine and other stakeholders. Nonetheless, as the displacement continues, access to rights needs to be ensured in order to meet the longer-term needs of TPD beneficiaries.

In addition, mapping implementation remains crucial to ensure that states’ approaches incorporate respect for fundamental rights and contribute to the longer-term inclusion in European societies of current TPD beneficiaries. Monitoring also supports the identification of good practices and lessons which could be applied to strengthening asylum systems as a whole.

The compilation report is available here and AIDA country reports and their TP annexes as well as other comparative reports can be found on the AIDA website.

     

 

ECRE Member Organisations

• aditus Foundation, #ThereAreAlternatives – Combating administrative detention
• aditus Foundation, #Safe4All – LGBTQI+ refugees deserve protection
• Greek Forum of Refugees, Democracy4all
• Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI), Italian Society of Migration Medicine (SIMM) and No More Camps – No to CPRs (Mai più lager – NO ai CPR), Appello per una campagna di presa di coscienza dei medici sulla certificazione di idoneità delle persone migranti alla vita nei CPR
• Refugee Council, Fair and Humane Asylum System
• Safe Passage International, End Channel Tragedies: Share a Message of Solidarity and Call for Change
• Various, #stopborderviolence on the Polish-Belarusian border

 

Others

• Captain Support UK, Open Letter to the Home Secretary on the Unjust Prosecution of Ibrahima Bah
• Care4Calais, Far-right hate will not win. It’s time to unite.
• Collective Aid, Water for All // De L’eau Pour Tou-te-s
• Conversation Over Borders, Messages of Welcome
• Conversation Over Borders, Safe Homes, Not Hotels
• Freedom from Torture, Messages of Support
• Free the El Hiblu 3 Campaign, Drop the Charges Against the El Hiblu 3!
• Free the Pylos 9 Campaign, Free the #Pylos9
• Human Rights Watch, Act #WithHumanity
• Object War Campaign, Protection for Belarusian Conscientious Objectors Vitali Dvarashyn and Mikita Sviryd
• Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London, Protect Asylum Seekers: End the Use of Hotels
• Right to Remain, These Walls Must Fall
• Samos Volunteers, Choose Your Warmth 2024
• The Syria Campaign, Tell the EU: Syria is not safe for refugees to return
• Women for Refugee Women, Bring joy to refugee women this winter!
• World Justice Project, European Union Subnational Justice, Governance and Rule of Law Indicators

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