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WEEKLY BULLETIN
 
23 January 2025
 

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EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS


ATLANTIC ROUTE and SPAIN
BALKAN ROUTE
EU EASTERN BORDERS


NEWS FROM THE ECRE OFFICE

 
RECENT REPORTS

EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS


ATLANTIC ROUTE and SPAIN
  • The number of recorded irregular arrivals on the Canary Islands reached an all-time record in 2024.
  • A new NGO report has revealed that at least 10,457 people died or disappeared trying to reach Spain via maritime routes in 2024.
  • The central government and the government of the Canary Islands have reached an agreement regarding the distribution of unaccompanied minors across Spain.
  • The government of the Balearic Islands is considering requesting assistance from Frontex to help to prevent irregular arrivals on the archipelago.

The number of recorded irregular arrivals on the Canary Islands reached an all-time record in 2024. According to preliminary data published by the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), there were 46,877 arrivals in 2024. This represented an 18% increase on the previous year and the highest figure since Frontex began collecting data in 2009. In addition, according to a recent report published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, an additional 3,223 people arrived in the Canary Islands in the first fifteen days of 2025.

A new NGO report has revealed that at least 10,457 people died or disappeared trying to reach Spain via maritime routes in 2024. According to the report by Caminando Fronteras, this represents a 58% increase from the previous year. The report described the Atlantic route as “the most lethal in the world” and revealed that it accounted for 93% of the recorded victims. It also revealed that of the 9,757 victims on the Atlantic route, 6,829 (70%) had departed from Mauritania. “An average of 30 lives have been lost every day because migration politics have been prioritised over human rights,” Caminando Fronteras X posted. More recently, approximately 50 people who were trying to travel by boat from Mauritania to the Canary Islands in the first week of January 2025 are believed to have died in a shipwreck off the coast of Morocco.

The central government and the government of the Canary Islands have reached an agreement regarding the distribution of unaccompanied minors across Spain. On 17 January, Minister of Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres and President of the Canary Islands Fernando Clavijo endorsed a proposal to use state funds to transfer 4,000 unaccompanied minors who had arrived on the Canary Islands and up to 500 others who had arrived in Ceuta to the other autonomous communities. Despite the agreement, questions remain about its implementation. Clavijo appears to favour the use of a royal decree-law in order to speed up the process whereas the central government seems to prefer a legislative proposal given the likelihood of an appeal by the opposition People’s Party.

The government of the Balearic Islands is considering requesting assistance from Frontex to help to prevent irregular arrivals on the archipelago. According to the Voz de Ibiza newspaper, 5,924 people arrived on the Balearic Islands in 2024; a 160% increase from the previous year. Speaking to journalists on 10 January, the Balearic Islands government’s spokesperson, Antoni Costa, said: “The European Commission has long offered the Government of Spain help in this regard with the participation of Frontex and it has rejected it. If the Central Government is unable to make decisions and tackle the matter, we will ask for help from Frontex to plant themselves here and control the borders of the Balearic Islands”.

Related articles

     

 

EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS


BALKAN ROUTE
  • The Italian Consortium of Solidarity has called for ‘careful’ reading of new data from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) that shows a significant decrease in the number of irregular crossings on the Western Balkan route in 2024.
  • The EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina have initialled an agreement that will allow Frontex to assist the Western Balkan country with its border management operations.
  • Croatia, Italy and Slovenia have signed a memorandum on joint police patrols at Croatia’s external border.
  • A new NGO report has shed light on the financial support that the EU provides for accelerated asylum and deportation procedures in Bulgaria, including an ‘assisted voluntary return’ programme.
  • Activists have accused the Bulgarian border police of intentionally blocking their efforts to rescue three Egyptian minors who died from hypothermia in December 2024.
  • A new NGO report has provided details of EU funding for border surveillance in Serbia.
  • The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled against Hungary in another case of unlawful detention in the country’s transit zones.

There was a significant decrease in irregular border crossings via the Western Balkan route in 2024. According to preliminary data from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the number of detections on this particular route fell by 78% to 21,520. Frontex attributed the significant fall in the number of recorded irregular crossings to “strong efforts by regional countries to stem the flow”. However, it also noted “increasing violence by smugglers”. Following the publication of the data, the Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS) called for “careful analysis” and warned that the numbers only capture “part of the reality” for migrants on the Balkan route. The NGO highlighted that “no international source shows a real decrease in departures from the main areas of origin of refugees,” and that in certain countries “the situation is getting worse”. ICS also advised that the Frontex data should be used in conjunction with other indicators such as the numbers of arrivals in Greece and pushbacks on the EU’s external borders in the region. It concluded that the reduction in the visible presence of people on the move on the Balkan route might be more indicative of trafficking networks becoming more structured and crossings taken place in less visible ways, rather than a genuine decrease in the number of crossings.

The EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have initialled an agreement that will allow Frontex to assist the Western Balkan country with its border management operations. Commenting on the agreement, which took place on 18 December 2024, EU Ambassador to BiH Luigi Soreca said that the Frontex deployment was a “crucial step” towards addressing “irregular migratory flows” and “migrant smuggling” while ensuring “the rights of every person crossing these borders is respected”. BiH Minister of Security Nenad Nešić described the agreement as a “symbol of our readiness to co-operate, negotiate and take concrete steps towards a better future for all citizens of BiH”.

Croatia, Italy and Slovenia have signed a memorandum on joint police patrols at Croatia’s external border. At a press conference following a meeting of the three countries’ interior ministers on 20 January in Slovenia, Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi stated that the temporary reinstatement of border controls on the Italy-Slovenia border had had a “deterrent effect on irregular entries”. “Since the implementation of this measure, approximately 2,300 individuals have been reported, and 318 were arrested, 160 for aiding and abetting clandestine migration”, he added.  Croatian Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović said that the trilateral agreement would result in more effective exchange of operative data using existing tools and joint patrols, demonstrating EU co-operation to “combat illegal migration”. He added that Croatia had recorded 58% fewer “illegal crossings” in 2024 than it did in the previous year.

A new NGO report has shed light on the financial support that the EU provides for accelerated asylum and deportation procedures in Bulgaria, including an “assisted voluntary return” programme. According to the report, which was published by Statewatch on 13 January, Frontex has taken on an expanded role in these processes including providing counselling services for individuals subject to deportation orders or in detention. It notes that  in 2023, Frontex deployed four return counsellors to Bulgaria where they conducted 1,547 counselling sessions.

Activists have accused the Bulgarian border police of intentionally blocking efforts to rescue three Egyptian minors who died from hypothermia in December 2024. The activists allege that they were alerted to the three boys lying unconscious in the snow near Burgas on 27 December but that that efforts to rescue them were thwarted by the Bulgarian authorities’ failure to respond to emergency calls and border guards physically preventing rescuers from reaching them. One of the activists from the NGO No Name Kitchen wrote on Instagram: “This was no accident. These preventable deaths are calculated and deliberate, they are political decisions and policies made by the EU in its pursuit of border control and exclusion”. The Directorate-General for Border Police has denied the activists’ reports and claimed that it had “reacted immediately to all received signals” but that the alerts in question included “wrong or misleading information”.

A new NGO report has provided details of EU funding for border surveillance in Serbia. According to the report by the Border Violence Monitoring Network and Collective Aid, EU pre-accession support has been used for the procurement of advanced technologies such as night observation devices, drones, heartbeat detectors and video surveillance cameras. It notes that € 6.5 million were designated for Serbia to acquire border surveillance technologies and biometric database IT systems as part of the European Commission’s Western Balkan Action Plan which was announced in 2022.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled against Hungary in another case of unlawful detention in the country’s transit zones. On 19 December 2024, the court ordered the Hungarian state to pay € 10,000 in compensation to a family of six who were unlawfully detained for four months in the Röszke transit zone in 2019. ECRE member organisation the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which represented the family, noted that the case was the organisation’s 21st  in which the ECtHR ruled against the Hungarian state for unlawfully detaining people seeking asylum in transit zones.” “The scale and severity of the human rights violations committed by the Hungarian state are further evidenced by the 24 urgent interim measures that had to be issued by the ECtHR, ordering the Hungarian state to stop the practice of depriving asylum seekers of food,” it added.

Related articles:

     

 

EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS


EU EASTERN BORDERS
  • There has been a threefold increase in the number of recorded irregular crossings on the Eastern Borders route.
  • The Polish government has made border security a priority of Poland’s presidency of the Council of the EU.
  • The Polish government has adopted a controversial package of draft laws on migration and asylum
  • The Finnish government is preparing to extend the duration of its controversial border security law.
  • The Slovakian prime minister has threatened to cut financial support to Ukrainians living in Slovakia in a dispute with Ukraine over Russian gas exports.

There has been a threefold increase in the number of recorded irregular crossings on the Eastern Borders route. According to preliminary data published by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) on 14 January, there were 17,001 recorded crossings in 2024. This represented a 192% increase on the previous year. According to data published by the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project, at least 16 people died trying to enter the EU from Belarus in 2024 (41 in 2023) and at least 10 died trying to enter from Ukraine (none in 2023).

The Polish government has made border security a priority of Poland’s presidency of the Council of the EU. The programme for the six-month period (1 January – 30 June) provides that the Polish presidency will “actively work to find new and innovative solutions to today’s migration challenges, particularly regarding the security of the EU’s external borders”, adding: “It is necessary to seek appropriate responses to security threats, including those of a hybrid nature”. It also committed the Polish presidency to trying to “strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of both voluntary and forced returns”. On 17 January, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the “tough protection” of borders as a “sacred duty” and highlighted the need to find the ”right answers” in order to avoid handing control of security and migration policies to “radicals, extremists, populists”. Addressing members of the European Parliament on 22 January, he called for EU migration policy to be based on “democratic values, individual freedoms and respect for human and minority rights” and argued that it was possible to “tackle the problem of illegal migration and problems with internal security in Europe without nationalistic and xenophobic slogans”. Not all MEPs were convinced by Tusk’s presentation. Speaking to Euronews after the debate, Spanish socialist MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar said: “We strongly oppose this regressive approach to migration, which is biased towards the security side instead of striking a fair balance between shared responsibility and solidarity with those fleeing from despair”. “There are borders to be protected, but fairly and in good balance, not only by strengthening external borders but also by cooperating fairly with countries of transit or origin, opening up legal pathways, and, of course, understanding the EU’s commitment to fundamental rights and human rights,” he added.

The start of Poland’s EU presidency came a few weeks after the Polish government adopted a controversial package of draft laws on migration and asylum. According to the Notes from Poland news service, the package, which was adopted on 18 December, includes the possibility of temporarily suspending the right to claim asylum in Poland, a “temporary halt on joint asylum applications from family members while restrictions are in effect” and the introduction of a legal definition of “instrumentalisation”. Despite Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s claim that “this project is not only supported by the people, but also in Europe”, the draft laws have been criticised by NGOs and there has even been opposition from within his own ruling coalition. “We believe that there are more effective methods of protecting the border than suspending asylum,” the Left alliance X posted on 18 December, adding: “We still have doubts about the compliance of this solution with international agreements and the Constitution”. ECRE member organisation the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights was more explicit in its criticism of the draft laws. “The proposed laws are inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the standards of international law. They are also inconsistent with EU law, both in force and pending, and with the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum,” it wrote prior to the government’s approval of the package. “They continue to replicate the pattern of illegal pushbacks and increase the risk of violating the ban on collective expulsion of foreigners, resulting from the provisions of international law” it added. The package will now pass to parliament.

The Finnish government is preparing to extend the duration of its controversial border security law. The ‘Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration’ was adopted in July 2024 for a one year period. According to a press release issued on 9 January, the Ministry of the Interior has set up a legislative project to extend the duration of the law beyond its 22 July expiry date. Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen said: “The security situation at Finland’s eastern border is tense but stable for now. However, we must be prepared for rapid and critical changes”. She also said that the government had “no plans” to open the country’s eastern border which has been closed since December 2023. The Left Alliance has already stated that it will oppose the extension of the law. “The turnback law blatantly violates EU law and international human rights treaties. The Left Alliance cannot support it,” said Aino-Kaisa Pekonen MP. The proposal for the extension of the act is due to be submitted to parliament in April.

The Slovakian prime minister has threatened to cut financial support to Ukrainians living in Slovakia in a dispute with Ukraine over Russian gas exports. In a video posted on Facebook on 2 January, Robert Fico said that he would propose “sharply reducing” financial aid for the estimated 130,000 Ukrainians living in Slovakia in retaliation for Ukraine shutting off a pipeline that supplied Central Europe with Russian natural gas, a move that he claimed would cost Slovakia € 500 million in transit fees from other countries. Fico also said that he would propose to halt electricity exports to Ukraine. He repeated the threat a week later. “We can stop all humanitarian aid,” he told reporters in Brussels.

Related articles

     

 

NEWS FROM THE ECRE OFFICE


AIDA Comparative Report: Access to Socio-economic Rights for Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection

The latest AIDA comparative report provides an overview of access to socio-economic rights for beneficiaries of temporary protection (TPBs) in Europe. It covers the main trends, challenges and good practices regarding access to socio-economic rights for TPBs in 19 EU member states and three non-EU countries and is an updated version of the first AIDA comparative report on access to socio-economic rights for TPBs which was published in 2023 and which covered the situation during the first year following the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive.

The latest comparative report includes the following key findings:

  • Accommodation: The forms of accommodation made accessible to BTPs during the initial stages of the emergency response largely remained available, with continuous financial support and increased occupancy of private housing compared to reception centres. However, divergencies among policies regulating access to accommodation, as well as duration and amount of granted support remained, with certain reception centres and assistance programmes being closed down. In addition, the disproportionate effect of the housing crises on displaced people contributes to a situation of homelessness in certain countries, whereas the matching services, as well as screening and vetting measures remained limited.
  • Employment: Access to employment has been significantly facilitated by removing the requirement to obtain an authorisation to work and the provision of vocational training, language courses and career counselling. However, administrative barriers such as the need for recognition of qualifications, language barriers, restriction to access certain occupations and a lack of information on administrative procedures still represent key obstacles. Measures to prevent and combat exploitation continue to be largely missing.
  • Education: The integration into the system of education for children was undermined by the challenge of reconciling local programmes with Ukrainian ones since many children still attend Ukrainian schools via online tools. While a number of facilitating measures have been developed to ensure a speedy assessment of children’s levels of education, vulnerabilities and language skills, a range of issues in this area remain, including schools’ limited capacities and the lack of support for Ukrainian children with disabilities. Access to higher education has been supported by waived tuition fees for TP holders and the establishment of ad hoc scholarships.
  • Healthcare: Access to healthcare services for BTPs varies significantly across the countries. Although in most cases, people who have been displaced from Ukraine are entitled to full access to public healthcare systems under the same conditions as citizens, some countries limit their access to essential or emergency care only. In addition, access to healthcare is hampered by administrative barriers, lack of information and language mediation, and limited psychological support remains a key issue.
  • Social welfare: In the context of the lack of harmonised rules on access to social welfare and varying approaches across the countries, common challenges include administrative barriers and long waiting times for the granting of access, an insufficient amount of benefits, lack of vulnerability assessments before the provision of social assistance, and the suspension of access to social benefits due to back-and-forth trips to Ukraine. In exceptional cases, BTPs continue to be explicitly excluded from the groups that are eligible for social welfare systems.

The report also includes the following recommendations to national authorities:

  1. Improve public housing conditions and create more affordable long-term private housing solutions
    • Improve public housing conditions in line with EU Asylum Agency guidelines
    • Refrain from premature closure of the emergency housing facilities
    • Continue financial support for independent private housing to facilitate longer-term inclusion of current TPBs in host societies
    • Develop better matching and vetting systems for private housing to tackle the risks of abuse and exploitation given limited safeguards
    • Ensure timely extension of TP-based permits, something which directly affects access to all types of housing, and, consequently, access to other interrelated rights
  1. Ensure direct access to labour markets and reduce administrative barriers to access to education
    • Reduce administrative barriers (e.g. need for recognition of qualifications), abolish the restriction on access to certain sectors (e.g. healthcare, education, etc.) and lift the requirements of high administrative fees for BTPs in both employment and education
    • Facilitate access to language courses and counselling
    • Disseminate information on relevant administrative procedures
    • Introduce long-term programmes to ensure continuity of education despite the short-term nature of TP-related statuses
  1. Apply more flexible conditions for access to healthcare beyond emergency assistance
    • Ensure healthcare provision beyond emergency care
    • Sustain aid in terms of health insurance without time limits
    • Enhance translation assistance and increase the capacities of mental healthcare
  1. Provide TPBs with full access to social welfare
    • Harmonise the standards of social welfare provision
    • Lift the administrative barriers and waiting time for being granted access to social welfare
    • Ensure a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups

The latest comparative report is available here and the 2023 version and other comparative reports can be found on the AIDA website.

     

NEWS FROM THE ECRE OFFICE


AIDA Statistical Update: The Implementation of the Dublin III Regulation in 2023

The latest AIDA statistical update provides an update on developments in legislation, policy and practice relating to the implementation of the Dublin III Regulation in 2023, and an overview of case law on the suspension of Dublin transfers.

It includes the following key findings:

  • Record number of outgoing requests – Dublin countries sent a record number of outgoing requests in 2023 (193,971 decisions taken on 201,868 outgoing requests).
  • Main users: Germany and France – Germany and France continued to be the main users of the Dublin system in 2023. Together they accounted for 64% of total outgoing requests.
  • Continued low transfer numbers and rates – The number and rate of transfers that were actually carried out remained low in 2023 (18,919 outgoing transfers (9%)). Of the 29 countries for which data was available, 20 registered a transfer rate of 30% or below, and three registered a transfer rate of less than 1%. In addition, the transfer rates for the top four users of the Dublin system in 2023 were all less than 10%: Germany, (7%), France (5%), Belgium (9%) and Austria (9%).
  • Prevalence of “take-back” requests – 68% of the requests that were sent in 2023 were “take-back” requests (i.e. concerning people who had already lodged an asylum application in another Dublin country).
  • Very limited use of family provisions – Only 1.2% of the outgoing requests that were sent in 2023 were based on the criteria related to family unity and the best interests of the child. This was despite the fact that these provisions are at the top of the hierarchy of responsibility and should therefore have been prioritised.
  • Continued litigation on respect for fundamental rights – Dublin procedures remained a major source of asylum litigation in Europe in 2023, before both domestic and European courts. However, jurisprudence continued to be inconsistent between and sometimes within countries regarding blocking transfers to certain partner countries for reasons related to respect for fundamental rights, including the existence of systemic deficiencies.

The latest statistical update is available here and previous updates can be found on the AIDA website.

     

 

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