A top EU lawyer has delivered yet another blow to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the policies of his administration. The lawyer said that the country's criminalization of individuals or groups who helped migrants stood at odds with EU law.
In the central Mediterranean, the race against time to reach the EU is turning to a race against Libya's coast guard. With mounting reports on stand-offs between Libyan maritime authorities and NGOs in international waters, fewer migrants are succeeding in making their way to Europe. They are instead returned to Libya.
The Cypriot government has lashed out at Turkey, saying it was indirectly involved in helping create a new migration route that "disproportionally burdened" Cyprus. The island nation and EU member state has had the bloc’s highest percentage of asylum seekers for several years.
A Belgian court handed a one-year suspended sentence to a police officer over the fatal shooting of a two-year-old migrant girl. The officer shot at a van carrying migrants during a car chase, resulting in the toddler’s death.
Tomo Knezevic, director of the "Caritas" charity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is taking Europe to task: His chapter of the global Catholic charity has received "far too little support" in its efforts to care for migrants, he said in an interview. He is appealing for more help from sister organizations across Europe.
Senior German politician Claudia Roth from the Green Party has publicly withdrawn her personal support for the EU’s border protection agency, Frontex. She has called for Germany’s withdrawal from the agency in the absence of a "complete reorientation of Frontex."
Local volunteer Zlatan Kovacevic says that the situation in Bosnia is slowly going from bad to worse, as helpers begin to encounter corpses and growing violence against migrants. Children are particularly at risk, according to Save the Children.
A German Neo-Nazi was sentenced this week to life in prison for murdering Walter Lübcke, a local politician whose support for refugees had made him a target among Germany’s right-wing extremist scene. The verdict has closed a painful chapter in Germany's debate on migration, but there's a long history of xenophobia and racism that continues to simmer underneath.
The British government has staunchly dismissed rumors and views among some migrants and refugees in Calais that chances for getting asylum in the United Kingdom might improve for them after Brexit, stressing that the opposite was true.
The managing board the EU’s border agency Frontex announced that following an internal investigation, it did not yet find enough proof of any rights violations at sea involving Frontex agents. However, it also didn't rule out that pushbacks might have occurred in some of the instances.
The Western Sahara is known for its beaches and resorts; but amid a global pandemic, locals have been forced to seek opportunities elsewhere, aiding people smugglers in moving migrants across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands. But this is a dangerous undertaking on all sides.
Instead of going to classes and learning lessons for life, migrant children on the move are often stuck simply trying to survive. In Bosnia, some have to help their parents scheme their escape into the EU instead of enjoying their childhood.