
Italy poised to elect far-right rulers
Italy has lurched closer to electing a far-right government in September after a centre-left coalition broke down on Sunday.
Thursday
11th Aug 2022
Italy has lurched closer to electing a far-right government in September after a centre-left coalition broke down on Sunday.
Hotel Giardino, in the tiny skiing resort of Breno, Italy, is run by a staff of refugees as part of a good-news programme aimed at integrating migrants.
Last weekend, Italy's Lampedusa island was again making headlines for being overrun with migrants. But, paradoxically, the crisis was more visible from TV news bulletins and social media than from the ground.
UN human rights council says push backs in Greece have become de facto general policy. Reporters without Borders says press freedoms in Greece are among the worst in Europe. Greece's PM refutes both to MEPs in Strasbourg.
Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of the EU's border police Frontex, sought to attend a European Parliament committee meeting in mid-July. He was told not to come.
The agency is suspending border surveillance operations in Lithuania. It also wants to reverse a rule which requires it to suspend operations in EU states where violations take place — and instead send in more agents.
Ports in Italy cannot impound NGO migrant-rescue ships on grounds they take on board too many people to be safe, the EU court has ruled.
By only screening, fingerprinting or relocating (some) refugees, or by outsourcing our border control to Turkey and giving Erdogan our keys, we will not solve the current problems.
The French EU presidency is set to announce next week how many asylum seekers will be relocated under a temporary solidarity proposal, billed as a major breakthrough.
Thousands of Asian workers are picking fruit in slave-like conditions under Italy's agro-mafia "masters", who send the produce all over Europe.
Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi defended his border forces despite evidence of illegal pushbacks, including a new testimony from a 26-year old asylum seeker from Gaza.
Almost a dozen NGOs have demanded an investigation into the reported deaths of some 29 people who had attempted to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla last week.
Frontex won't reveal how it complies with rights when it returns rejected asylum seekers from Hungary. The Warsaw-based agency had suspended other operations in Hungary after the EU court in 2020 told Budapest to stop abusing migrants.
Mary Lawlor, UN' special rapporteur on human rights defenders, said a Greek registration system for NGOs working with migrants is in breach of international law.
Compassion fatigue coupled with complex Belgian bureaucracy is affecting Ukrainians in Brussels — some of whom are being told to leave by their hosts.
This World Refugee Day, EU policymakers must build on their current efforts towards protecting and welcoming people fleeing Ukraine.
Egyptian authorities are set to get an €80m cash injection from the European Commission for "maritime border surveillance equipment" and "for further equipment to be identified."
The least developed countries account for less than 1.3 percent of global GDP yet host 27 percent of the world's displaced populations. High-income countries, by comparison, host 16 percent.
A handful of EU states have so far pledged to relocate around 7,000 people seeking protection and arriving on European Mediterranean shores. The French EU presidency is hoping for 10,000.
The French EU presidency proposal seeks to relocate 10,000 asylum seekers, arriving from the Mediterranean, over one year. But with refugees from Ukraine stretching national reception systems, it remains unclear how many EU states will commit to relocations.
The French EU presidency has circulated a draft declaration, ahead of a meeting among EU interior ministers, on getting EU states to relocate migrants and asylum seekers.
Lawyers at front-LEX, a Dutch-based civil society organisation, are threatening legal action against EU border agency Frontex unless it suspends operations in Greece.
Aija Kalnaja took over Frontex as a caretaker after its executive director Fabrice Leggeri resigned last month. On Monday, she promised more transparency and better management of the Warsaw-based agency.
Fewer people may be crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya compared to recent years, but the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says underlying problems remain entrenched.
The French EU presidency is pressing to make some last-minute headway on the EU's migration and asylum reform but is still meeting resistance from a handful of member states.
Four defendants in a larger case by Italian prosecutors face 20 years in prison for having helped rescue hundreds of people from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
Facing with war at home and xenophobia in the Czech Republic, Ukraine's Roma refugees are falling between the cracks of Europe's great humanitarian effort.
Some 2.7 million Ukrainians have registered for protection in the EU. But many others are hesitating to do the same.
Russia was not invited to an international donor conference on Syria in Brussels given its war in Ukraine. Moscow had also recently threatened to veto a humanitarian corridor from Turkey to Syria.
Orbán's government is still beating up and pushing back non-Ukrainian migrants, including one Lebanese man who fled the Ukrainian war zone to Europe.
NGOs and academics say Poland's wall with Belarus violates EU environmental laws. The EU commission says "public safety" exemptions exist — in a possible endorsement of the 186km-long wall.
Fabrice Leggeri took on the role of the executive director of #Frontex in 2015. He posted a resignation letter earlier this week. Another senior official, Thibauld de la Haye Jousselin, may also have resigned.
German sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch is suing Frontex for refusing to disclose some 73 documents on its possible role in helping the Libyan coast guard intercept migrants in Malta's rescue zone.