The original version of this blog post was published by The Migration Initiative By the end of 2019, the number of refugees worldwide reached 26 million and it continues to rise. Today, developing countries, such as Turkey and Uganda, host the vast majority of the world’s refugees. Clearly, robust solutions to the plight of refugees have […]
Migration flows to Europe: a new Tunisian exodus
In Tunisia, deterioration of the economic situation, a rising unemployment rate and the reduction of civil rights is currently causing a new flow of Tunisian migrants heading for Italy, seeking both work and safety in Europe. The silent, growing and continuous exodus from Tunisia is a new form of migration and should spark a revision of international norms on international protection and a new form of migration governance aiming at capturing determinants, processes, and outcomes of the actual migration. What can the Tunisian exodus teach us about current protection needs?
What’s new in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum?
States remain the central actors in shaping the outcomes of European migration policy, and states only can turn the ambitious goal of ‘effective solidarity’ set by the European Commission into reality.
Reigniting the migration and asylum debate: Comments on the Commission’s proposal
It is precisely by aiming at the center of a very polarized political spectrum, and by presenting itself as a compromise, that the proposal can hope to spark a fruitful debate. Any expansive or restrictive suggestion from the angle of Northern, Eastern, or Southern states would be immediately dismissed by the opposing fringe.
A Greek Tragedy in Moria: Asylum Seekers without Durable Solutions
Since the terrible fire at the Moria asylum unit on the Greek island of Lesvos on 8 September the world has been horrified not only by the scale of the disaster but the inadequacy of the response at the local, national, European, and international level. While asylum seekers, with no-where to go, sleep on the […]
The (lack of) EU Migration Policy on fire: What can be learned from the Moria disaster?
The striking images of the fires which devastated the largest migrant camp in Greece last week have circulated across media all over the world and astonished the public. About 13,000 people have lost their shelters, which have allowed them, although in a very uncomfortable way, to survive, far from war and violence. On 10 September, the day after the […]
Disaster Foretold: Refugees in Moria at risk after fires. What now, EU?
As much as the Greek state tries to present the fire and misery that unfolded as an unpredictable event and a state of emergency, this disaster was preventable, foreseeable and, therefore, foretold and avoidable. It is the outcome of a series of inadequate and patchy political decisions as well as the largely exclusionary, discriminatory and deterrent policies that have been implemented within and beyond the EU’s borders.
The Global Compacts and the Long Journey of the Refugee Regime
From the definition of refugees to the practical implementation of the right to asylum, refugee regimes are an issue leading to sharp political divisions or outright stand-off in a number of countries. Is this no-exit-road impression the truth of the matter, and what are the prospects of the Global Compact in this not-so-rosy scenario?
“The US is not safe for asylum seekers” – Federal Court of Canada strikes down the Canada-US Agreem
The Federal Court of Canada has determined that the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) infringes upon asylum seekers’ right to international protection and has given the Parliament six months to take necessary action. Until then, Canada can continue handing over asylum seekers to the US officials, exposing them to arbitrary detention and the possibility of immediate deportation to the countries where they have fled persecution or other life-threatening situations. The Federal Court should rescind the STCA immediately, not six months from now, say PROTECT researchers, Idil Atak, Zainab Abu Alrob and Jona Zyfi in this blog piece.
While the COVID-19 crisis is slowing down in Europe, EU member states have once again been called to decide on the priorities of the Union for the next seven years and agree on a massive recovery fund to mend the damages the pandemic has done to the EU’s economy. As Romanian Ministry of European Affairs, George Ciamba declared while his country held the rotating Presidency of the Council: “The European Budget is a reflection of how we see the European Union in the future”.
On 21 July 2020, after four days and nights of intense negotiations, EU leaders reached an agreement and announced the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). As far as migration and border policy are concerned, the new MFF as agreed upon by the European Council looks little like the budget the Commission had in mind in the first place.