100 posts
Report of Migrant Boat Sinking Off Libyan Coast – 15 Dead, 40 Missing
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According to AFP , the Somali envoy in Tripoli has reported that a migrant boat carrying approximately 50 migrants sank off the coast of Misrata on Wednesday last week. The boat was reportedly carrying about 55 migrants from Somalia. 15 …...
Deaths at Sea: Tourists and Migrants
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Presseurop reproduced a commentary article by Dominic Johnson from the Berlin newspaper Taz (Die Tageszeitung) contrasting the sinking of the Costa Concordia (and the extensive media coverage) with the more common and numerous sinking of migrant boat...
Malmström: Europe Failed Refugees in 2011
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Commissioner Cecilia Malmström wrote an opinion article in The Times of Malta of 19 January: “Refugees: How Europe failed- European promises of solidarity with people in need were tested in 2011. It is worrying to note that Europe, collectively,...
Hundreds of Tunisians Who Sailed to Lampedusa in 2011 Remain Missing
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Hundreds of Tunisians who departed Tunisia for Lampedusa by sea in early 2011 remain missing. Some of the missing almost certainly died at sea, but family members remain hopeful that others survived the voyage and are now in Italy or … Contin...
Statewatch Analysis: The EU’s self-interested response to unrest in north Africa: the meaning of treaties and readmission agreements between Italy and north African states
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Statewatch released an Analysis by Yasha Maccanico entitled “The EU’s self-interested response to unrest in north Africa: the meaning of treaties and readmission agreements between Italy and north African states.” The Analysis provides a desc...
Australia’s Asylum-Seeker “Problem”
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Although Australia is a nation conceived and developed by immigrants, the contemporary political climate towards asylum-seekers is one of hostility—a hostility that has seeped into the Australian population. The recent failed attempt by the Austral...
Customs, security and immigration - learn it, live it, love it
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I have many irrational pet peeves, and many seem to involve air travel. One of the most silly may be my disproportional irritation when people use the word 'customs' when they really mean immigration or airport security. But as silly as this little h...
Chatham House Briefing Paper: Responding to Migration from Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Lessons Learned from Libya
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A new Chatham House Briefing Paper by Dr Khalid Koser entitled “Responding to Migration from Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Lessons Learned from Libya” has been released. Summary: At its peak during the Libyan conflict, migration to Tunisia an...
UNHCR Calls on Malta and Italy to Expand Search For Missing Migrant Boat
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UNHCR’s Malta office issued the following statement on Thursday while search efforts for the migrant boat by the Armed Forces of Malta continued: “The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expresses deep concern for the fate of te...
Reports of First Post-Gaddafi Migrant Boat [UPDATED 2345 GMT - Lampedusa "Closed" for SAR Operations]
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Italian media is reporting this afternoon that a satellite telephone distress call has been received from a disabled migrant boat carrying about 50 persons from Libya. A search in the Maltese SAR zone is being undertaken. The boat is reportedly &...
The asylum situation in Greece
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Yesterdays Council meeting with EU Ministers of Home Affairs in Luxembourg was lengthy – there was a lot to discuss. The most difficult issue was the asylum situation in Greece. Now, almost a year since the adoption of the Greek Action Plan, it...
Finland studies neighbours’ policies to limit family reunions
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Written by Thomas Huddleston, MIPEX Research Coordinator, Co-author and Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Group After national elections almost brought the True Finns to power, the new Interior Minister is looking to reform the country’s family...
Schengen Wars: Bulgaria and Romania are victims of populism
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Image Source: Bogartier Bulgaria and Romania, two of the latest members of the European family, have been denied accession to the Schengen Area despite the fact that they satisfy all the necessary criteria. The denial comes from the side of two...
UNHCR, IOM, and Save the Children Warn that Italy’s Decision to Declare Lampedusa a Non-Safe Port Endangers Sea Rescue Operations
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UNHCR, IOM, and Save the Children issued a joint statement expressing concern that Italy’s decision to declare Lampedusa an unsafe port which can no longer receive persons rescued at sea risks “undermin[ing] the entire rescue at sea system for mi...
Call for Support: Boats 4 People Project
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From Migreurop: “… thousands of migrants died in the Mediterranean this Summer in their attempts to reach Europe. Boats wandered adrift and shipwrecks took place in front of Coast Guard ships, surveillance patrols of Frontex and ships from the...
Appeal for a Visa-free Europe
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We, the undersigned members of the Coalition for the European Continent Undivided by Visa Barriers, call upon the leaders of the European Union and Eastern Partnership (EaP) states gathered at the EU-EaP summit in Warsaw on the 29th-30th of September...
Italian Ship Carrying 150-200 Detained Tunisian Migrants Reaches Sardinia
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One of the three passenger ships being used by Italian authorities for the past four days to detain hundreds of Tunisian migrants reached Sardinia this morning (26 September) around 7.30 AM local time. The ship, the Moby Fantasy, left Palermo ̷...
Italy Declares Lampedusa Unsafe; Rescued or Intercepted Migrants Will Be Taken to Sicily; 700 Migrants Detained On Board Ships for Past 3 Days
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As a result of the violent disturbances on Lampedusa over the past week and a fire that damaged buildings at the island’s migrant reception centre, Italian officials have responded with drastic measures. Lampedusa has been declared an unsafe port...
Articles: European Journal of Int’l Law and Goettingen Journal of Int’l Law
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“Fighting Maritime Piracy under the European Convention on Human Rights”, European Journal of International Law, Volume 22, Issue 3, by Stefano Piedimonte Bodini, Head of Division at the Programme and Budget Department of the Council of Europe (a...
No Schengen enlargement at today’s Council
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A long session of the Justice and Home Affairs Council has just finished. Unfortunately, the Polish Presidency did not manage to find a consensus among the Ministers regarding Bulgaria’s and Romania’s Schengen entry. Two Member States, Fi...
A ‘promise broken’; Romania and Bulgaria denied entry into Europe’s free-travel zone
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By DON MELVIN BRUSSELS — Romania and Bulgaria, the European Union’s two newest members, were denied entry into Europe’s borderless free-travel zone Thursday when EU interior ministers could not reach the necessary unanimity and deci...
Schengen Wars 2
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Romania and Bulgaria's Schengen aspirations are being put on hold again, with the Netherlands and Finland opposing the phased introduction of the two countries into the border-free zone due to concerns over their levels of corruption. Before the vote...
Huge polish disappointment with Finland and the Netherlands
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Poland’s minister for International Affairs and Administration Jerzy Miller took distance from Finland and the Netherlands’ unwillingness to accept Rumania and Bulgaria as new members of the Schengen-area. - Both Bulgaria and Romania have...
Daily digest: Finland throws sand in the machinery again
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It has started to become a habit for the nordic country. First they want collateral for the Greek bailout, and this time with the Dutch, Finland is opposing Bulgaria and Romania to become part of the Schengen-agreement causing a lot of trouble for th...
HRW Report: Frontex Exposes Migrants to Abusive Conditions in Greece
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Human Rights Watch yesterday issued a report entitled “The EU’s Dirty Hands: Frontex Involvement in Ill-Treatment of Migrant Detainees in Greece” which “assesses Frontex’s role in and responsibility for exposing migrants to inhuman and degr...
Eurostat: Asylum Statistics for Q1 2011
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Eurostat has issued a statistical report regarding the number and makeup of asylum applicants in the 27 EU member states and Norway, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein for the First Quarter 2011. The report documents the increased number of applications...
Very Good Proposal on Schengen
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The Commission has put forward a proposal for improving the institutional framework of the Schengen area. First, the Commission proposes a strengthening of the Schengen evaluation mechanism. Announced and unannounced monitoring visits to a given Memb...
On EU-Russia visa free travel (Part 1)
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A visa-free regime with the EU is perhaps the one thing that most Russians want most from the EU and is a key priority for Russia’s EU policy. The EU and Russia have agreed on a set of ‘joint steps’ towards a visa-free regime. The issue...
aditus: EP should monitor EASO's activities
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Last week I participated in a seminar organised by the European Parliament Office in Greece, on Mediterranean migration and asylum. The seminar was one of a series of similar events organised by the three European Parliament Offices in Greece,...
The News: Beefed-up border control
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Frontex, the EU external borders agency will have new powers to control immigration. More news in this video clip.
3 EU states insist on control of national borders
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By RAF CASERT BRUSSELS (AP) — Germany, France and Spain warned the European Union’s head office Tuesday not to meddle in how they manage their borders, insisting it’s a question of state sovereignty, even as the bloc’s member nati...
A stronger Frontex
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I’m in Strasbourg for an extraordinarily busy session of the European Parliament where I will be debating Frontex and corruption. I also have a lot of meetings on the asylum package, Schengen and PNR, amongst other issues. In the College meetin...
EASO 4th Management Board meeting
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On 19th and 20th September EASO's Management Board will be meeting for the fourth time, in Malta's capital Valletta.© EASOIt looks like the programme will be quite an ambitious one, attempting to cover almost all Agency aspects including:Variou...
Análisis del Real Instituto Elcano: La crisis en el Norte de África y su impacto en la inmigración irregular a la Unión Europea (by Frontex Dep. ED Gil Arias)
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Real Instituto Elcano has published an analysis regarding the situation in North Africa and its impact on irregular immigration to the EU. The analysis was written by Frontex’s Deputy Executive Director Gil Arias. Of particular interest is the an...
Universal exceptionalism
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Exceptionalism is the new word of order in European migration policy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi met on 26 April to propose a fundamental reform of the Schengen border-free area: a national exceptio...
Guardian: Libya Official Admits Migrant Ships Being Allowed to Sail as Protest Against Nato
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From today’s Guardian: “The Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is allowing thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants on to overcrowded, unseaworthy ships in an apparently calculated attempt to use migration as a weapon to pressure Nato an...
Driving more nails into the Schengen coffin
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It’s not France and Italy this time, but Denmark, driving more nails into the coffin of Schengen, Europe’s border free system, at least in spirit. Danish Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, as reported by BBC, said: We have reached...
58 Bodies Discovered in April on Tunisian Beaches
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The Tunisian Interior Ministry released a communiqué reporting that authorities during the month of April recovered a total of 58 bodies that had been washed ashore. The bodies were mostly those of men and were found along beaches in Skhira, ...
Libya: Because of NATO Aggression, We Cannot Be Guards of Europe
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From an AP story about the sinking of the migrant boat that left Tripoli last week, killing hundreds of persons: “… International agencies say some recent migrants report being forced onto dangerously packed ships at gunpoint by Libyan soldiers.
...The easy option! Suspend the Schengen! Bravo!
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What a lovely act of unity, an inspirational example of Europe and its leaders acting in solidarity when dealing with difficult issues! What have we been witnessing for the past few weeks, when the crisis hit north Africans took to the boats to enter...
PACE President Calls for Inquiry into Europe’s Role in Deaths of 61 Boat People
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Full Text: “Strasbourg, 09.05.2011 – Mevlüt Çavusoglu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), today expressed his distress and deep concern following reports that 61 boat people have died after their appeal...
500 Migrants Rescued Off Lampedusa; Hundreds Likely Dead Off Libya
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A boat from Libya carrying over 500 people from sub-Sahara Africa and Asia ran around off Lampedusa on Sunday. Italian rescuers saved everyone on board. The survivors had to be brought ashore by rescuers in the water because rescue boats … Co...
Report: Military Ships Failed to Rescue or Render Aid and 61 Died at Sea
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The Guardian on Sunday reported many more details about an incident that began on 25 March when a migrant boat left Libya carrying 72 asylum seekers and which ended 16 days later on 10 April when the disabled vessel washed … Continue reading &#...
Oh the irony… British Labour MEP stands up to defend Schengen
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Better than no-one – S&D group MEP Claude Moraes has issued a statement, on behalf of the group, defending Schengen and criticising Sarkozy and Berlusconi. Moraes – rightly – says: The Sarkozy-Berlusconi demand for stricter bord...
Will the politician ready to defend Schengen please stand up?
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So started an interesting exchange of views about the future of Schengen yesterday – my tweet, and then a reply from European Commisson spokesperson Koen Doens: Subsequent to the Twitter discussion, I’ve had some time to digest the letter...
Internal document on Frontex Regulation proposals
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On 16h March the LIBE Committee held a discussion on the Commission’s proposals to amend the Frontex Regulation. MEP Simon Busuttil was the Committee’s Rapporteur, and he drafted the report as the basis for the Committee’s discussion. The out...
More Assets Dedicated to Frontex Joint Operation “Hermes Extension”; More EU and NATO Naval Forces Present in Central Mediterranean
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The assets dedicated to Joint Operation Hermes Extension continue to increase, although at present there are only two coastal patrol boats (Italian) participating in the Frontex mission. Ten surveillance aircraft will soon be deployed. See the...
Frontex Lampedusa Situational Map
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Frontex posted a situational map showing current and past information regarding migrant flows from Tunisia to Italy. The map is dated 25 Feb. 2011. Tagged: Algeria, Frontex, Hermes, Italy, Joint Operation Hermes Extension, Lampedusa, Malta, Situati...
Frontex Work Programme for 2011
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Frontex’s 139 page work programme for 2011 is available on its web site. I have not reviewed it yet. It was presented to the JHA Council earlier in the week. Click here for the document. Tagged: European Union, Frontex, Work … Continu...
Frontex Central Mediterranean Operation Likely to Begin Within Days; Dutch to Send Coast Guard Plane to Lampedusa; France and Spain Likely to Deploy Planes or Ships
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The Dutch government has decided to deploy a Coast Guard surveillance plane to Italy to participate in the new Frontex joint operation. The Dutch decision was announced by Immigration and Asylum Minister Gerd Leers on Friday. The plane and two &#...
Over 4000 Migrants Reach Italy – Humanitarian Emergency Declared
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Over 4000 migrants have now arrived in Italy from Tunisia. The Italian government has declared a humanitarian emergency. Tunisian security forces have reportedly secured the Tunisian port of Zarzis from which many of the migrant boats have depart...
Italy Requests Urgent Deployment of Frontex Patrols to Coast of Tunisia
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Italy on Friday requested an urgent meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council to address the immigration situation that is developing with Tunisia and the arrivals in Italy of over 2000 Tunisians over the past two days. Interior … Co...
Hundreds of Tunisians Continue to Arrive in Lampedusa – ANSA: “Si e’ riaperta ‘l’autostrada del mare’ nel Canale di Sicilia”
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Hundreds of Tunisians have continued to arrive in Italy on Lampedusa, and the islands of Pelagie and Pantelleria. A Tunisian newspaper reported that 12 boats have left Tunisia in recent days. 400 migrants have arrived in Lampedusa and other Itali...
49 external vacancies in June?
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Unsurprisingly, it looks like recruitment was high on the second Management Board meeting’s agenda. Following the call for Seconded National Experts, there is a now rumour that in June the Commission will publish 49 external vacancies. What for...
Euro-Africa Conference on Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, and Terrorism (Napoli, 7-9 February)
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The Italian Interior Ministry and the Direzione Centrale dell’Immigrazione e della Polizia delle Frontiere are conducting a three day conference, beginning today, in Napoli, 7-9 February. In attendance will be top police officials from 45 Afr...
