schengen area

• France

Les Républicains' candidate Valérie Pécresse is proposing to take a hard line on immigration if she is elected in the French presidential election in April. In particular, this right-wing politician wants asylum applications to be reviewed outside France and to pass a law on immigrant quotas. Up for re-election, center-right Emmanuel Macron, candidate for La République En Marche, wants to reform the Schengen Area. InfoMigrants examines their key immigration policies.

• France

A meeting of EU interior ministers in France on February 3, resulted in the establishment of a new Schengen Council as well as proposals to get member states to either accept migration quotas or pay towards supporting other members that do.

• France
• European Union

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed the creation of a Schengen Council to "better anticipate crises and react more quickly, as Europeans, to evaluate our frailties and better protect our external borders."

• Bangladesh
• Croatia
• Slovenia

The body of a migrant from Bangladesh has been found in Slovenia near the border with Croatia. Police say it is the first such death in this part of the border region.

• Germany

EU officials accuse the governments of several countries of a lack of cooperation when it comes to readmitting citizens whose asylum applications have been rejected within the bloc, a German newspaper reports.

• France

There are different types of detention locations for migrants in France. To help you understand the differences and what your rights are, InfoMigrants has put together an overview.

• Afghanistan
• Denmark
• Germany

More than 1,500 migrants have illegally entered Germany from Scandinavian nations since the beginning of the year. Politicians are calling for an overhaul of the Dublin regulation to make such secondary migration less attractive.

• Austria
• France
• Germany

In a conference in Brussels on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, along with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called for a beefing up of the EU's borders to fight "the threat of terrorism."

• Greece
• Turkey

An investigation by a number of European media organizations has found that Frontex, Europe's border security agency, has been involved in several illegal "pushbacks" of asylum seekers crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.

• Austria
• Hungary
• Slovenia

Austria has begun testing drones on its borders to Hungary and Slovenia. Equipped with live-tracking and heat-sensing cameras, the drones will be used to detect the movements of smugglers and irregular migrants.

• Cyprus

Cyprus announced it would be launching a "blitz" SMS campaign in order to try and deter migrants from coming to the country. Many have arrived thinking that Cyprus is a gateway to the rest of the EU. That is not the case, says the government.

• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Croatia
• Serbia

Croatia has assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council -- for the first time. The youngest EU member state is having a chance to prove itself on the world stage amid serious allegations of migrant abuse at its borders.