European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)

21/11/2024

📚 Temporary Protection Compilation on 2023 is OUT

➡A compilation of the annexes on temporary protection (TP) that were attached to the 2023 updates of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) country reports for 19 EU member states (MS) and three non-EU countries.

➡It includes information on and analysis of the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) and similar national temporary protection regimes in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Read it in full here: 🔗 https://ecre.org/aida-temporary-protection-compilation-on-2023/

15/11/2024

🚨ECRE has published a comments paper on the regulation commonly known as the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR). More comments on the Pact will be published in the coming weeks.

🔴Find out all you need to know about the Regulation establishing a Common Procedure for International Protection in the EU👇

➡Changes to the Directive on Common Procedures for Granting and Withdrawing International Protection (Asylum Procedures Directive (APD)) introduced under the APR represent a deterioration in protection standards compared to the status quo.

➡More people will be detained in centres, usually at the border, and have their applications heard in border procedures.

➡Fewer people are likely to receive protection in Europe given the erosion of procedural guarantees and restrictions on the right to appeal.

➡There may also be more denials of entry due to the increased responsibilities of countries at the external borders.

➡Read the full comments here:

ECRE Comments Paper: Regulation establishing a Common Procedure for International Protection in the EU 14th November 2024 | News ECRE has published a comments paper on the Regulation establishing a Common Procedure for International Protection in the EU, commonly known as the Asylum Procedures Regul...

13/11/2024

📚 The ✨First✨ Country Report on is OUT

➡️This is the first AIDA country report on Ukraine and it was written by the Ukrainian organisation Right to Protection (R2P)

➡️In 2023, 130 people applied for international protection in Ukraine. 138 decisions were taken by the authorities at the preliminary stage of the asylum procedure, resulting in 115 referrals for further examination (83%) and 23 rejections.

➡️In February 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted new legislation which, inter alia, limited the right to apply for asylum at the border.

👉Since the full-scale invasion by Russia, Ukrainian authorities have used the imposition of martial law and a strict application of the five-day registration time limit as justifications for not registering or processing applications, despite the fact that current legislation does not foresee restrictions to the right to seek asylum.

➡️Since 2022, beneficiaries of international protection (BIPs) who fled Ukraine have not been able to issue or extend their protection certificates or travel documents from abroad.

Read the full report here: 🔗https://ecre.org/aida-country-report-on-ukraine/

18/10/2024

🗞️NEW Working Paper on the EU-Mauritania Partnership🗞️

The working paper, 'The EU-Mauritania Partnership: Whose Priorities?', provides an analysis of the Partnership agreement structured around five "priority areas":

➡ Socio-economic opportunities for young people to facilitate social cohesion
➡ Protection and asylum
➡ Legal migration and mobility
➡ Irregular migration, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in human beings, return and readmission
➡ Border management, surveillance and control

🖊️Written by Dr Hassan Ould Moctar

Read the full paper here: https://ecre.org/working-paper-the-eu-mauritania-partnership/

11/10/2024

✍Editorial: Irony Overload: Turning against the Pact

In a strange reversal, the most ardent proponents of the Pact are now arguing against it, while those who opposed it – ECRE included – are focusing on implementation.

✒ Written by ECRE Director Catherine Woollard
🔗 Read the full editorial here: https://ecre.org/irony-overload-turning-against-the-pact/

04/10/2024

📚 The Country Report on is OUT

➡️In 2023, Malta received 600 asylum applications, with 833 cases pending at end of the year.

➡️The overall protection rate at first instance was 27.9%.

➡️Despite a 2022 European Court of Human Rights judgment which criticised Malta’s accelerated asylum procedure, it remained unchanged in 2023. Legal practitioners continued to argue that it violated the obligation to provide an effective remedy for all negative decisions.

➡️A new policy also barred people who filed subsequent applications which were deemed inadmissible from accessing employment. This measure was criticised by NGOs who argued that it discouraged asylum seekers from filing subsequent claims and, thus, limited their access to legal remedies.

➡️Access to detention centres and detained asylum seekers remained a significant challenge throughout the year.

➡️In 2023, Malta’s Human Rights Directorate launched a national consultation on the country’s second National Integration Policy and Action Plan. A public consultation document was published which included key principles for the upcoming strategy and questions to guide public input. This move was seen as an opportunity to address long-standing integration challenges for asylum seekers and migrants in Malta.

Read the full report here: 🔗https://ecre.org/aida-country-report-on-malta-2023-update/

23/09/2024

✍ Editorial: The new Commission: Jobs for the boys and bigger jobs for the girls; an unwanted job for Austria

The big news of the rentrée in Brussels is the new Commission. EU member states (MS) put forward their nominees during the summer and this week returning Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, presented her proposal for the allocation of roles to the MS’ nominees.

✒ Written by ECRE's Director Catherine Woollard
🔗 Read the full editorial here: https://ecre.org/editorial-the-new-commission-jobs-for-the-boys-and-bigger-jobs-for-the-girls-an-unwanted-job-for-austria/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF2Et9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWvM9SnLnz8UuyR0hYq7KE1m4ORgZHC2Ev__CVraClyPvj5Od2U1y3F-WA_aem_ISPzUdc9joDlCXxb1Ef36Q

17/09/2024

🚨 ECRE has published a comments paper on the legislation commonly known as the Reception Conditions Directive (RCD). More comments on the Pact will be published in the coming weeks.

🔴 Find out all about the recast Directive Laying Down Standards for the Reception of Applicants for International Protection 👇

➡ The RCD was adopted in May 2024 as one of the central pillars of the reformed Common European Asylum System (CEAS).

➡ It should be read together with ECRE’s comments on the European Commission’s 2016 recast proposal and ECRE’s analysis of the May 2018 interinstitutional political agreement.

➡ The new RCD brings about positive and negative changes from the perspective of fundamental rights.

👉 As was the case with the other pieces of legislation that were agreed in 2018, the new RCD is more balanced than the proposal that was launched in 2020.

👉 Positive changes include clearer definitions of material reception conditions and strengthened requirements on the standards applicable to all forms of accommodation. In addition, provisions on contingency planning are intended to prevent “crises” and challenges in reception systems. In terms of socio-economic rights, the new RCD provides that access to the labour market must be granted at an earlier stage (six months maximum).

👉 Other changes included in the new RCD allow for the withdrawal and reduction of reception conditions in a wider range of circumstances (including absconding) and, notably, removal of entitlement to reception conditions is required when the applicant is not in the EU member state (MS) responsible, a measure which forms part of the punitive approach that runs throughout the CEAS reforms. Even when reduction and withdrawal are applied, minimum standards must still be ensured.

➡ While transposing the new elements of the 2024 recast and planning how to manage these changes, ECRE believes that EU MS must also tackle the longstanding and well-documented implementation gaps, not least because many have been neglected or deprioritised during the reform process whereas the legal obligations concerned remain central elements of the recast RCD.

➡ Read the full comments here:

ECRE Comments Paper: Reception Conditions Directive (Recast) 13th September 2024 | News ECRE has published a comments paper on the recast Directive Laying Down Standards for the Reception of Applicants for International Protection, commonly known as the ‘Reception Conditions Directive’ (RCD). Th...

14/08/2024

📚 The Country Report on is OUT

➡️In 2023, 108,808 arrivals were registered in Serbia (slightly fewer than in 2022). However, only 1,654 people officially registered asylum applications and only 193 then lodged a first-time asylum application.

➡️Access to the territory and to the asylum procedure remained extremely difficult in 2023. People continued to be subjected to numerous human rights violations at the border by the Serbian Border Police, including arbitrary deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment, expulsion without examination of individual circumstances and risks of refoulement etc.

➡️Numerous people were also subjected to pushbacks towards Serbia from neighbouring (notably EU) countries. According to the Hungarian authorities, at least 100,128 third country nationals were pushed back from Hungary alone towards Serbia in 2023 (and at least 388,753 since 2016).

➡️In stark contrast to these practices, there were no reports or recorded incidents regarding people fleeing Ukraine being denied access to the territory. Temporary protection was extended several times, most recently until March 2025. Of the 1,482 individuals who have been granted protection since March 2022, 746 benefited from extensions of their temporary protection permits in 2023.

Read the full report here: 🔗bit.ly/3WIgEXd

08/08/2024

✍ECRE Legal Note: The Guarantees of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in Respect of Legal Counselling, Assistance and Representation in Asylum Procedures

➡️ECRE has published a legal note analysing the right to legal aid and legal counselling for asylum applicants under the new Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR).

➡️The note is focused on the relevant EU law standards in respect of legal aid and legal counselling and their application in practice, particularly Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which ensures the right to an effective remedy and fair trial.

➡️Article 16 APR (legal counselling) and Article 17 APR (legal aid) are analysed separately with a view to understanding the relationship between the two provisions and the legal standards that should inform their implementation.

👉Particular attention is paid to the definition of 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 as a broad right that goes beyond the right to information and ensures individual advice and guidance at first instance.

➡️Finally, the note presents recommendations for preventing or overcoming potential implementation challenges through a rights-based approach focused on robust legal counselling services and reliable legal aid systems.

Read the full legal note here 👇
🔗https://ecre.org/ecre-legal-note-the-guarantees-of-the-eu-charter-of-fundamental-rights-in-respect-of-legal-counselling-assistance-and-representation-in-asylum-procedures/

07/08/2024

🔔ECRE has published the assessment of civil society experts on questions related to asylum and forced displacement in the EU enlargement process

➡️These expert contributions are intended to inform the country reports on Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Ukraine in the framework of the 2024 Enlargement Package.

➡️Part I of the country contributions covers the fundamental pillars of the accession process – the alignment with the Copenhagen criteria.

➡️Part II is focused on the state of play regarding the countries’ alignment with the EU legislation related to certain aspects of asylum and migration.

➡️The contributions also offer recommendations for improving the standards and practices related to the management of asylum systems and wider migration policies of each of the four countries covered.

🔗Read it here: https://ecre.org/asylum-and-forced-displacement-in-the-eu-enlargement-process-contributions-to-inform-the-european-commission-2024-enlargement-package-in-the-area-of-asylum/