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EU: Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe: 11-12-3-17

01 March 2017

EU  
Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe
11-12-.3.17
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Keep in touch: Statewatch Observatory: Refugee crisis in the Med and inside the EU: Daily news (updated through the day), commentaries and official documents

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EU: Council plans to "map" security checks on refugees, migrants and EU citizens at external borders on all available databases

The Council Presidency is preparing to launch a "mapping exercise" on all movements in and out of the EU at its external borders and also internally ("police checks"). See Note to: Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI): Security checks in case of irregular immigration - mapping exercise (LIMITE doc no: 6717-17, pdf)

For both all "third country nationals" including refugees and migrants and EU citizens the legal basis for carrying out "security checks" is:

"verification that the person concerned is not likely to jeopardise the public policy, internal security, public health or international relations of any of the Member States. Such verification shall include direct consultation of the SIS and other relevant Union databases, without prejudice to the consultation of national and Interpol databases."

EU:Council of the European Union: Qualifications Directive: Period of validity for residents permits (LIMITE do no: 6926-17, pdf):

Some Member States want to set "minimum standards" - 3 years for refugees and 1 year for subsidiary protection. While other back between 5 and 10 years for refugees and 1 to 5 years for subsidiary protection.

Statewatch Viewpoint: 9th report on relocation and resettlement: Mystification and selective use of data in effort to present a dysfunctional approach as “sustainable” (pdf):

"On 8 February 2017, the Commission produced its ninth report on relocation and resettlement, covering a two-month period from 8 December 2016 to 7 February 2017. It basically offers an update on the figures and developments from the previous report, noting the resettlement of 13,968 people overall under the scheme and 3,813 relocations in the reporting period, viewed as maintaining “the overall positive trend” with December recording the record figure to date (1,926) and bringing the total to 11,966, up from 8,162....

The point is that the very limited targets for relocations are not being met, and it would make very little difference to the situation in Greece and Italy if they were met."

EU: Council Presidency treads a tricky path in trying to get Member State "solidarity" on refugees

The last Council Presidency (Slovakia) sought to resolve the issues of "solidarity" in responding to the refugee crisis with the majority of Member States failing to respond to calls for relocation and set the results out in a report to Delegations: Solidarity and responsibility in the Common European Asylum System - Progress report by the Slovak Presidency (LIMITE doc no, 15253-16, pdf). In the public version of this document pages 3-5 are deleted).

The Presidency lays out the dilemma as: "there is broad consensus that the current Dublin system is not ready to face substantial migratory pressures and that this has to be remedied."

European Parliament Study: Implementation of the 2015 Council Decisions establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and of Greece (pdf):

"examines the EU’s mechanism of relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other Member States. It examines the scheme in the context of the Dublin System, the hotspot approach, and the EU-Turkey Statement, recommending that asylum seekers’ interests, and rights be duly taken into account, as it is only through their full engagement that relocation will be successful. Relocation can become a system that provides flexibility for Member States and local host communities, as well as accommodating the agency and dignity of asylum seekers.

This requires greater cooperation from receiving States, and a clearer role for a single EU legal and institutional framework to organise preference matching and rationalise efforts and resources overall."

Greece: Court to rule on Turkey's 'safe' status after appeal of Syrians denied asylum (ekathimerini.com, link):

"Greece’s highest administrative court is expected to rule later this month on whether Turkey can be considered a safe country for refugees being returned under a deal with the European Union.

The Council of State’s plenary on Friday heard arguments based on the appeal of two Syrian nationals whose asylum applications were rejected by the Greek Asylum Committee.

The Syrians’ lawyers argued that the rejection is a violation of the UN Charter of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention as the committee based its decision solely on Turkey’s assurances, without a proper assessment of conditions in the neighboring country."

Are You Syrious(11.3.17,link):

FEATURE: Children forgotten by Europe

"According to the official data, there is about 20,500 refugee and migrant children only in Greece at the moment, including around 2,100 registered unaccompanied minors. However, these numbers could be much higher for many kids, especially unaccompanied, are not registered at all which puts them in horrible and very dangerous situations.

Most of those children who are registered in Greece are living in hostels, squats, apartments, and only around 6 percent are placed in shelters. Out of this number, so far only 4.027 children were relocated to other EU countries from Greece...."

Greece

"Today, on Samos and Chios, 88 new arrivals were registered by volunteers. Samos Volunteers groups reports about 26 new arrivals around 2 am."

Greece: Police violence reported, again

"We received disturbing information from various sources at islands. The most disturbing comes from friends in No Border Kitchen Lesvos and it is about continuous police violence against refugees on this island. As they report; “every day on this island people are controlled, harassed, humiliated insulted and beaten....

This is not the first time that refugees and their supporters on islands are reporting these types of police acting, but so far we are not aware of the actions by the government or any EU institutions against it. We strongly condemn police violence and call for the responsible institution to act and stop this practice.”

Austria: New deportations and calls for tightening of borders

"Despite constant protest by the people, the government announced new deportations. Der Standart reports about government plans for the next week to deport another the group of people from Afghanistan, including a 19-year-old man with no criminal record even though officials announced that only persons with the criminal record will be deported."

CoE: Parliamentary Assembly: Hungary: rapporteurs express deep concern at new law to automatically detain asylum seekers (link):

"Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), rapporteur for follow-up on human rights of refugees and migrants, has expressed her deep concerns about the new Hungarian law on the automatic detention of asylum seekers, which was adopted by the Hungarian Parliament yesterday.

“Hungary has been reminded by the European Court of Human Rights several times over the past years* that Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to protection of refugees and migrants against arbitrary interference with their right to liberty. Article 5 contains an exhaustive list of permissible grounds on which individuals may be deprived through lawful and proportionate decisions for each case. An automatic detention of asylum seekers is in clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights,” Ms Strik said."

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