The number of undocumented migrants arriving in Europe, especially via the eastern Mediterranean Sea route, has decreased, according to the EU border agency. At the same time, more are making the crossing from North Africa.
Up to 60 migrants are feared dead after a shipwreck on Thursday, March 18. The organization Alarm Phone has tried to reconstruct what happened and has spoken with survivors. Its report was released on Monday.
After the COVID-19 pandemic many more migrants and refugees will try to reach Europe, according to the head of the EU border agency, Frontex. Fabrice Leggeri also says Frontex "stands ready" to resume migrant returns to Turkey.
The European agency Frontex reported Thursday that illegal border crossings at Europe's external borders in January fell by almost half from the previous year to about 5,800.
While EU member states disagree over how to handle asylum seekers, all agree protecting the bloc's external borders is key. But Frontex, the agency tasked with the job, is in crisis. Marina Strauss reports from Brussels.
Senior German politician Claudia Roth from the Green Party has publicly withdrawn her personal support for the EU’s border protection agency, Frontex.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."
Pressure is growing on the head of the European border agency Frontex after new accusations of abuses, which the EU described as "very worrying." Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri has recently been subject to accusations over the methods used to stop migrants, as well as irregularities in Frontex spending.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, along with various other human rights advocacy groups, have been busy collecting evidence documenting Hungary’s continual flouting of EU law with regards to pushbacks. Since the EU Court of Justice declared Hungary’s pushbacks illegal in December 2020, a recorded 4,903 people have been pushed back to Serbia.
It follows a European Court of Justice ruling on the illegality of Budapest's treatment of asylum seekers. The EU border agency made the announcement on Wednesday.
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 Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog, has accused the EU border agency Frontex of "turning a blind eye towards well-documented systemic human rights violations at Hungary’s Schengen borders." Even after the European Court of Justice had ruled that the extra-judicial pushbacks taking place breached EU law.
Fewer people attempted to enter the EU without authorization in 2020, largely due to coronavirus restrictions, the bloc's border agency said. Syrians were again the largest group of people trying to enter the bloc.