Migration in the Mediterranean became a focus as Germany took up the rotating presidency of the EU Council in July and the EU’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, visited Malta this week.
Will you be sent back to Italy if you had your fingerprints taken there, but then applied for asylum in another EU country? What happens if you are to be deported under Dublin but you refuse? We put these questions and more to a number of experts, including German lawyer Albert Sommerfeld.
A human rights activist and former immigration detainee has warned that Europe is trying to copy Australia’s harsh asylum system. He says asylum seekers held in Australia's offshore processing centers suffer psychological abuse, trauma and racism.
When Germany takes over the rotating EU presidency, it will seek to tackle the long-stalled reform of EU asylum rules. The pressure to act is almost as great as the resistance to reform ideas.
The EU foreign minister has said that Europe is determined to protect its external borders. Josep Borrell was on a visit to Greece, which accused its neighbor Turkey of encouraging a new surge of migrants into Europe.
Austria has declared that it supports hardline changes to European asylum laws proposed by Germany. The two countries want migrants stopped at Europe’s external borders and turned away if they do not have a strong claim for asylum.
Members of the S&D group in the EU parliament have called on the European Commision to create a permanent mechanism for migrant search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea.
Asylum applications in Europe fell in April to their lowest level in over a decade. But an asylum lawyer has warned that migrants prevented from applying for protection because of coronavirus restrictions are now especially vulnerable.
Three EU member states will take in some of the 425 migrants disembarked in Malta this weekend after they were held offshore for more than a month. According to the European Commission, France, Portugal and Luxembourg have agreed to relocation.
Germany’s interior minister has called for his country to use its time in the EU presidency to strengthen the bloc’s border controls. But human rights groups say the move will hurt already-vulnerable refugees.
The government of Malta has signed an agreement with Libya to combat irregular immigration across the Mediterranean. The Maltese-funded plans involve the setting up of coordination centers in the Libyan capital Tripoli and the Maltese capital Valletta.
Will irregular migration to Europe increase again once COVID-19 related travel restrictions are lifted? Europol thinks so. In a new report, the European Union's policing agency also said the coronavirus pandemic is already changing migrant smuggling and trafficking.