Several migrants are reportedly stuck on Poland's border with Belarus, according to Polish authorities. Migrants' rights advocates say that security forces are illegally stopping them from executing their right of seeking asylum.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser calls for stricter immigration rules, as refugee charity Pro Asyl urges the German government to uphold human rights and the need for protection.
Germany is looking into whether asylum claims can be processed in countries outside the EU, but insists that it remains committed to human rights.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda has met in Warsaw on April 17 to exchange views on the EU's migration policy. Both have called for reforms in the EU's way of addressing migration, taking particular aim at the Dublin Regulation.
Data published by the German government indicates that roughly two thirds of all attempts to deport people whose asylum applications have been rejected fail. Government members cite logistical issues, such as canceled flights, or failure to locate the individuals on the day of departure, as possible explanations of the high rate. Meanwhile, positive asylum decisions are on the rise.
Around 12,000 asylum claims in the UK are to be decided based on a questionnaire instead of a face-to-face interview. The plan is aimed at clearing a huge backlog of applications.
The Netherlands has suspended a controversial restriction on the rights of recognized refugees to reunite with their immediate families. The change of course came after the highest court in the country ruled on Wednesday that the restriction on the right to family reunification of people with asylum status was unlawful.
Over the last two years the number of people leaving Tunisia by boat to reach Italy has been increasing. Despite evidence that the North African country is not a safe country, the European Union tends to claim the opposite in order to justify the outsourcing of its migration policies, according to a report released last month by Civil MRCC.
According to Germany’s new Special Commissioner for Migration Joachim Stamp, the German government plans to asses its options for transferring asylum procedures to the African continent. Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants the government to also focus on deportations of people with no right to remain in the country.
Germany's federal government has launched a funding program to establish new advice services for organizations that assist people in their asylum procedures. The service is intended to be completely independent of the authorities which are in charge of processing asylum cases.
The Swiss People's Party has declared it wants to "put a stop" to what it calls "disproportionate and harmful" immigration. The right-wing party hopes to set up transit zones abroad to prevent "illegal entries."
The UK's High Court has granted permission to appeal the country's controversial Rwanda asylum plan after previously ruling the policy was lawful.