Protests in Greece against migration policy
Hundreds of refugees protested in Athens on Saturday to mark their opposition to the Greek government's migration policy. Migrants held up banners accusing the government of having "blood on your hands."
Hundreds of refugees protested in Athens on Saturday to mark their opposition to the Greek government's migration policy. Migrants held up banners accusing the government of having "blood on your hands."
The EU has promised that it will step up its rate of returns for migrants and asylum seekers who are refused the right to stay in the bloc. On Wednesday, a plane carrying more than 60 Bangladeshi migrants landed in the capital Dhaka.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has reiterated that the EU needs migration. During a press conference announcing future EU migration policy, she declared that "investing in safe and legal routes is the only sustainable soultion to save [migrants'] lives."
In discussions surrounding the shipwreck that took place off the coast of Calabria on February 26, EU commissioners firmly defended Frontex's response.
Applications for asylum in the European Union in 2022 almost doubled compared with the previous year. Every third applicant came from Syria.
In the EU capital city Brussels, an estimated 3,000 migrants and asylum seekers sleep homeless or in temporary accommodation. It is a similar story in neighboring Netherlands.
Hans Leijtens, the new head of Europe's border agency Frontex, has promised to 'restore trust' as he prepares to take over the role on March 1.
According to Germany's biggest tabloid newspaper Bild Zeitung, in 2022 Germany tried to send back over 68,000 migrants to other EU countries under rules governed by the Dublin accords. The majority of those attempts failed.
The Polish authorities have been searching for bodies in wetlands at the Polish-Belarus border after at least three bodies of migrants were found in the last ten days. There are fears that the death toll could rise.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has accused the governments of Spain and Morocco of using "unlawful and lethal force" at the border between Melilla and Morocco in June this year. Amnesty holds them responsible for the deaths of at least 37 people and 77 missing.
The organization Human Rights Watch accuses the EU's border agency Frontex of being complicit in abuse in Libya. It says the use of aerial surveillance enabled the Libyan coast guard to return migrants to that country.
A new European investigative journalism report alleges that migrants are being "abitrarily detained and tortured at secret facilities along EU borders before being illegally forced back across [those] borders."