Tuesday
26th May 2020
Alarm Phone, a hotline service for migrants in distress, has released video footing showing an Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) boat making dangerous manoeuvres next to people swimming for their lives at sea. Malta does not deny the footage.
The Greek government has decided to transform the camps and create "closed facilities", where identification, relocation, and deportation are made easier for authorities.
The failure of successful integration of migrants and refugees granted stay in Europe puts the entire asylum and migration policy at risk. Member states have to step up their integration policies.
The Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development is predicting possible migration flashpoints in Iran, Libya and South America over the next 12 months. Its director-general Michael Spindelegger says EU states are not prepared for a repeat of 2015.
Around 7,500 applications were sent to Frontex to fill 700 new border guard posts. The guards will become official EU staff and wear a yet to be unveiled 'European Union' uniform.
At least 17 Libyans were returned to their war-torn country after attempting to flee on boats towards Europe. Their fates, along with many others, remain unknown as the EU-backed Libyan Coast Guard sweeps up people en masse.
The new EU pact on migration is set for publication sometime in June. Final tweaks are still underway as commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson says she remains cautiously optimistic on finding a solution to the most pressing issues.
The Dutch Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans has initiated a court case against the European Union for financing highway projects in an Eritrea where forced labour is rampant. The lawsuit comes amid a European Parliament debate on the funding.
The task been transferred from Operation Sophia to Operation Irini. Instead, a coalition of EU states must finally be formed which are willing to rescue and receive people in distress at sea.
Malta's prime minister's office is under scrutiny after allegations it gave instructions for a private vessel to push back a boat of migrants from waters within its zone of responsibility, and back to Libya. At least 12 people died.
Legal, human-rights and anti-poverty organisations are now demanding the EU's financial watchdog launch an audit into how the EU supports war-torn Libya.
There is a pan-European systemic issue: from Spain and Italy to France, Belgium, or Poland, harvests are under threat and Europeans are entirely dependent on the hard labour and sweat of foreign-born workers. The elephant in the room? Regularisation.
The EU is reorienting funds to boost the Libyan coast guard - amid fears that the escalating violence in the north African country plus the coronavirus will force a large exodus of people to take boats towards Europe.
On 4 March, the European Commission's legal service handed president Ursula von der Leyen an analysis of the Greek government's controversial decision to temporarily freeze asylum applications. The commission will not now release the document.
Interior ministers from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain sent a joint-letter to the European Commission outlining ideas ahead of the upcoming overhaul of the EU-wide asylum system.
Around half of the 600 residents have tested positive for Covid-19 at the Ellwangen camp in Baden-Wurttemberg, in southern Germany. Camp residents, many of them families, are forced to share facilities with those infected as police impose a lockdown.
Ports in Italy and Malta closed amid claims they are no longer safe because of the pandemic. The move means NGO rescue vessels are in limbo. The European Commission says it cannot pass any judgement on the closures.
From the Netherlands to Italy, refugees and asylum seekers are stepping forward to help in the fight against the pandemic. Some are trained doctors, others are cleaners, while others help out the homeless on Europe's streets.
The new EU naval mission to prevent arms-smuggling to Libya has clearly ignored Libya's reality and all expert advice.
Some 20 people at a refugee camp near Athens have tested positive for Covid-19. Although a worrying development, the EU commission says Greece will be able to handle it.
The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary broke the EU law over refusing to relocate asylum seekers after a decision in 2015 by member states.
The EU's latest navy operation, Irini, designed to counter arms trafficking to Libya, is keeping details on migration rescue procedures a secret. The mission was agreed earlier this week.
Berlin's justice minister Dirk Behrendt has said the city is ready to airlift up to 1,500 asylum seekers and refugees stuck on the Greek islands, as German activists collect money to pay for the evacuation.
Frontex has instructed deployed officers they have a legal obligation to remain on duty along the Greek-Turkey border in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, other operations are being suspended and downgraded.
An EU naval operation set for launch in April off the Libyan coast may be derailed following objections by Austria and Hungary. Both want the power to end the mission should migrants be lured into being rescued.
Greece has banned large pubic gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus, while imposing a curfew on thousands of asylum seekers and migrants living in misery in overcrowded camps, with one water tap for 1,300 people at one camp.
Malta has let the Libyan coastguard drag a boat of migrants from Maltese waters back to Libya despite the civil war, a UN agency said.
Far fewer people have been trying to cross the Greek border than in the past two weeks - but Turkey says migrants are still welcome to have a go.
Some 5,000 people stuck on the Greek islands will each be offered €2,000 to go home. The scheme is likely to take several weeks before officially launched and will be valid for one month.
The EU's only response so far is to work with Greece to strengthen the border into south-east Europe - a short-term measure which fails to deal with Turkey's intention to pressure the EU into supporting its wider agenda in Syria.
Revelations by the New York Times that Greece is running a black site where asylum seekers are detained, denied legal rights and then deported, will not be probed by the European Commission.
Some three million more Syrian refugees are being "deliberately" pushed by Russia toward Europe, US diplomats have warned.
The European Commission is traveling to Athens to discuss tension on the Greece-Turkey border. It wants to find a better response on getting EU states to take in unaccompanied minors. It also wants to discuss Greece's controversial asylum-suspension measures.
