The independent rights investigators’ final report comes as their mandate ended on Friday, coinciding with the end of the UN Human Rights Council’s 54th session, leaving victims in limbo.
Established by the Council in December 2021, their brief from the Council was to conduct through and impartial investigations into alleged human rights violations in Ethiopia, perpetrated by all parties to the conflict since 3 November 2020.
Steven Rather, an expert on the Commission, described the termination of the mandate as a “great blow” to victims seeking justice.
“It is essential that this work [the investigation] continues, and this legacy report offers a detailed resource to support the fight against impunity in Ethiopia,” he said.
The Commission’s final report presents a detailed account of the atrocities – which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity – committed in Tigray, Amhara, Afar and Oromia, pointing a finger at all parties involved.
Due to time and resource limitations, the Commission was not able to determine the possible crime against humanity of extermination or genocide.
Experts called for investigations to continue to establish the full facts and legal implications.
The Ethiopian National Defence Forces, Eritrean Defence Forces, and allied regional Special Forces and militias are collectively responsible for a litany of horrors, the report said.
This includes mass killings, widespread and systematic rape, sexual violence – including sexual slavery, deliberate starvation, forced displacement, and large-scale arbitrary detentions, all of which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Some Tigray forces are also culpable for war crimes, including killings, widespread rape and sexual violence, destruction of property, and looting.
Lack of accountability
Prospects of meaningful domestic accountability are extremely remote – Commission member Radhika Coomaraswamy
The Commission noted that continued violations committed by the Eritrean Defence Forces in Tigray before and after the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in November 2022 – and the spread of violence across much of the country, highlight the scale of impunity.
“The prospects of meaningful domestic accountability are extremely remote,” said Radhika Coomaraswamy, an expert serving on the Commission.
“The demands of victims and survivors for justice and accountability are clear and unwavering, and their voices must be heard,” she stressed.
International call
The shutting down of the Commission cannot signal the end of the road, especially when the risks of future atrocity crimes remain glaringly visible, chairperson Mohamed Chande Othman said.
He called on the international community, including regional actors, to not forget the victims of the brutal conflict.
“States must continue to place the situation of human rights in Ethiopia high on the international agenda, and actively investigate and prosecute crimes committed in Ethiopia before their respective domestic courts, under the principle of universal jurisdiction,” he said.
We often hear about inter-religious meetings to celebrate “living together”. These encounters are particularly fashionable at meals to break the fast, for the feast at the end of Ramadan or for the sheep feast, but curiously never to celebrate Easter, Christmas or Pesach. Where are the imams today, the media-friendly peacemakers?
Why haven’t they come to support their Jewish friends? Where are the associations fighting racism and anti-Semitism? Where are the neo-feminists who had no words for the women raped, killed and slaughtered by Hamas assassins on Saturday 7 October? Where are the Muslim intellectuals who have only “living together” in their mouths to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organisation?
In support of Israel, the President of the CCOJB (Comité de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique) thanked the members of the community as well as those from outside the Jewish community for attending. I would have liked to hear a speech from the associations in support of our Jewish friends and the Israeli community.
You Belgians want to make progress and fight anti-Semitism? Do you really? Then set an example by clearly affirming your support, by denouncing Islamic terrorism loud and clear and without fearful glances towards communities plagued by Islamism.
Just about everywhere in the world, lights in the colours of the Israeli flag have been lit up on monuments symbolising the country. In Brussels? Nothing! In the name of what neutrality? Excuse me, what institutional cowardice?
Worse still, we have left-wing and extreme left-wing politicians who dare not associate “terrorism” with Hamas. One of the most important trade unions in the Kingdom of Belgium, the FGTB, has even dared to put Israel and Hamas back to back. But do you understand what Hamas is? Have you read its charter, which begins with a pious vow to exterminate the Jews? Not the “State”, not the “Israelis”, but the Jews! Just as the ideology of National Socialism advocated. Don’t you understand that the difference between Nazism and the ideology of Hamas is only in this “detail”?
The RTBF public service news channel also reminded us of this with the speech by François Dubuisson, professor at the ULB, who does not use the term “terrorist” to describe Hamas (it would be interesting to know how he would speak if his children had been kidnapped by this “organisation”). His speeches were more that of a pro-Palestinian activist than that of a university professor, shedding light on the situation and the event of the massacre of Jewish people in Israel. And that’s just one example.
Yet Hamas is indeed a terrorist group that wants to exterminate the Jews. Its motto is: “God is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Koran its constitution, jihad its path and death in the path of God the highest of its hopes”. What’s stopping you from reading his words for yourselves? You don’t negotiate with groups that want to exterminate you. Negotiation implies an appeal to reason, and the only reason known to this movement is hatred. Hatred of otherness, embodied by the Jews and the West.
Frightened groups accuse Israel of apartheid throughout the West and support terrorists, contributing to the evil that is eating away at all Western societies: Islamism and anti-Semitism. They compare it to the apartheid practised in South Africa. In South Africa, there was real discrimination between blacks and whites, enshrined in law! In Israel, however, different ethnic and religious groups live together under the same laws. Israel is a democratic country, whether or not you agree with its policies. There is no apartheid in Israel.
The so-called “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict allows Islamists to mobilise the Muslim “Ummah” around a common cause and a common enemy. In fact, Hamas launched an appeal to the Ummah today, calling on the Arab Ummah to destroy Israel.
You can’t imagine what it does to the heads of propagandized European Muslims to hold the flag of Israel as a symbol of the free world, not to burn or trample it. Few know that Muslims defend Israel with weapons in their hands and die for this country which is also theirs and to which they have sworn an oath, like Lieutenant-Colonel Elim Abdullah, a Druze from Januh-Jat. Or patriotic Arabs like Youssef Haddad, a Zionist who defended his country. Or like Nuseir Yasin (better known under his blogging name Nas Daily) who calls himself first Israeli and then Palestinian and who writes that he does not want to live under the Palestinian government while being an Arab Muslim.
We need to set an example, stop the hypocrisy and pretend that everything is fine in these one-way “living together” meetings. Some people hide behind the words “we want peace between the two nations”, but have “we” understood that the aim of Hamas is not “two nations”, but the extermination of the Jews? Those who brandish this formula today are hypocrites and liars.
The reality is that the silence of these institutions tells us the extent to which we are hostages to groups that want to do battle with our civilisation.
It is never too late to act, because we are next on the list. Hamas’s fight against Israel is a fight against our Western civilisation.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a “lethal low” as the Israeli military orders the relocation of over 1.1 million people from the northern region of Wadi Gaza to the southern area, within a 24-hour deadline. This announcement, made by UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, has raised concerns about devastating consequences for the already vulnerable population. The United Nations (UN) and its agencies have called for the order to be rescinded, emphasizing the impossibility of such a movement and the dire humanitarian repercussions it would entail.
UN representatives in Gaza have described the relocation order as a “death sentence” for many affected individuals. The World Health Organization (WHO) has joined the call for Israel to retract the order, highlighting the impossibility of evacuating vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza. The UN has reiterated its appeals for the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza and for the protection of civilians, as well as urgent aid access to the sealed-off enclave.
‘Pushing people into the abyss’
UN humanitarians have also expressed concern about the worsening situation in Gaza and the potential loss of civilian lives. The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that the relocation order would lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in Gaza into an abyss. The UNRWA stated that Gaza is on the brink of collapse, emphasizing the need for all parties to uphold the laws of war.
Aid ‘locked out’
The UN has urgently requested humanitarian access to Gaza, as supplies are quickly depleting. The situation has reached a critical point, with UN officials stating that they are effectively locked out of Gaza. On Thursday, the UN launched a flash appeal for $294 million to address the urgent needs of 1.26 million people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The immediate priority is to de-escalate the conflict and alleviate the suffering of civilians.
Health system at ‘breaking point’
The health system in Gaza is at a breaking point, with hospitals exceeding their capacities and struggling to provide adequate care. The World Health Organization has reported that six out of the seven main hospitals in Gaza are only partially functioning. Moving critically injured patients and those depending on life support would be a death sentence, and health workers are facing a difficult choice of whom to save in a dire situation that is overwhelming the already strained healthcare system. There have also been numerous attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel, further exacerbating the crisis.
Release hostages, protect civilians
The UN Human Rights Office insists that civilians must never be used as bargaining chips and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages. Both Palestinian armed groups and Israel are urged to respect international humanitarian law and halt attacks against civilians. The rise in hate speech, including anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric, is also a cause for concern, and leaders are called upon to stem such hate speech and incitements to violence.
Rise in hate speech
The situation in Gaza has sparked strong emotions worldwide, leading to a proliferation of hate speech and incitement to violence in many countries. The UN rights chief deplores this rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate speech and calls on leaders to unite against it. In the face of this desperate situation, the international community must show solidarity and advocate for the protection of all civilians, regardless of their background.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet in New York to discuss the situation in Gaza, highlighting the urgency of the crisis and the need for a coordinated international response.
Hungary will not allow marches in support of “terrorist organizations,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said. “It is shocking that all over Europe there are rallies in support of terrorists,” Orban told public radio, referring to the public demonstrations that followed a weekend attack by Hamas on Israel, Reuters quoted him as saying.
“There have been attempts to do this even in Hungary. But we will not allow sympathizing rallies in support of terrorist organizations, as this would lead to a terrorist threat to Hungarian citizens,” stressed the prime minister. He added that all Hungarian citizens should feel safe, regardless of their faith or origin.
Photo by Timi Keszthelyi: https://www.pexels.com/photo/body-of-water-near-building-2350351/
Friday the 13th is a date associated with bad luck. On this day, millions of superstitious people avoid meetings with black cats, stay away from mirrors for fear of breaking them, refuse to drive and travel by plane. Hotels and hospitals often skip the 13th floor, and airports skip the 13th exit.
There is a term for the fear of Friday the 13th – paraskavedecatriaphobia or frigatriskaidekaphobia. The fear of the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia.
The association with bad luck may be biblical – 13 were the guests at the Last Supper when Jesus was betrayed. He was crucified the next day – Friday. It is also possible that the 13th is out of favor because it is after the 12th, as are the months. The signs of the zodiac, the gods of Olympus, the feats of Hercules, the tribes of Israel and the apostles of Jesus are also a dozen.
In the Middle Ages, Friday was called Hanging Day because criminals were executed then. There were 13 steps to the scaffold, so many loops on the gallows, 13 pence was paid to the executioner.
President Franklin Roosevelt did not travel on Friday the 13th, nor did he host dinner parties for 13 people. Even the great Napoleon suffered from a morbid fear of the fatal number.
The worst Friday 13th crash on record was in October 1972 when a plane crashed in the Andes. 12 people died and the survivors were forced to feed on corpses before being rescued after 72 days.
The end of the world is also expected on this date. According to forecasts, on Friday the 13th in 2029, the 320 m diameter asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass dangerously close to Earth. According to NASA scientists, if the asteroid were to make landfall, it would devastate a region the size of Texas. If it falls into the ocean, it can cause huge waves.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Russia for another year.
The decision to extend the mandate was made in a resolution that received the support of 18 Council members, while seven members opposed it and 22 abstained. This move comes after Russia’s bid to rejoin the Council was rejected by the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.
Urgent Call for Compliance
The UNHRC “strongly urged” Russian authorities to comply with all international human rights obligations. The resolution called for the protection of fundamental freedoms, including those of thought, opinion, expression, and assembly. It also emphasized the need for Russia to remove restrictions on diversity in ideas, criticism, and dissent, as well as ensure the associated rights to liberty, security of person, fair trial, and freedom from torture.
Full Engagement and Cooperation
The resolution further called on Russia to engage fully and non-selectively with all UN human rights mechanisms, and to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur’s mandate. It urged Russian authorities to provide unhindered access to the mandate holder, allowing them to visit the country, meet with relevant stakeholders, including civil society, human rights defenders, and individuals in detention.
Background and Role of the Special Rapporteur
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia was established by the UNHRC in October 2022. The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed to monitor, assess, and report on the human rights situation in the country.
In September, the Special Rapporteur issued a report highlighting a significant deterioration in human rights in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February the previous year. The report also described a systematic crackdown on civil society in the country.
The current Special Rapporteur, Mariana Katzarova of Bulgaria, was appointed on April 4 and assumed her functions on May 1. She serves in an individual capacity, independent of any country or the UN Secretariat. It is important to note that she is not a UN staff member and does not receive a salary from the organization.
The extension of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate demonstrates the UN’s continued commitment to monitoring and addressing human rights violations in Russia. By urging Russia to comply with its international human rights obligations and calling for full engagement and cooperation, the UNHRC aims to ensure the protection of fundamental freedoms and the promotion of human rights in the country.
As the Special Rapporteur continues her work, it is hoped that her findings and recommendations will contribute to positive change and accountability for human rights abuses in Russia.
Key Takeaways:
The UNHRC extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Russia for another year.
Russian authorities were strongly urged to comply with international human rights obligations and remove restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
Full engagement, cooperation, and unhindered access were called for to facilitate the Special Rapporteur’s work.
The Special Rapporteur’s role is to monitor, assess, and report on the human rights situation in Russia.
Individuals and organizations cooperating with UN human rights bodies should be protected from intimidation and reprisals.
The extension of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate underscores the UN’s commitment to holding Russia accountable for human rights violations and promoting a culture of respect and protection for fundamental freedoms.
What does it take to get food, medicine, emergency education, and shelter to record numbers of people in some of the most dangerous places on Earth? The UN does this around the world, including in Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan, Ukraine, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
One in every 33 people (that’s 242 million people) on the planet needed humanitarian assistance in 2022, and most of that aid was coordinated through the UN.
This week, as the Israel-Palestine crisis erupted on 7 October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York swiftly mobilized. As with all UN emergency responses, the agency facilitates efforts to deliver life-saving aid to those in need.
Taking the lead in providing relief on the ground, including in Afghanistan, Sudan, and Gaza this week, are many UN acronyms commonly identified with emergency aid worldwide, including the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), and other such specialized agencies as those focused on refugees (UNHCR) and children (UNICEF).
A crisis team at UN Headquarters in New York works around the clock to monitor hotspots across the world. To support these efforts, the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) amplifies emergency needs and funding appeals globally online and on social media.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his special envoys engage key players in each conflict to try to find a peaceful solution. In the meantime, the UN chief and staff monitor situations on the ground, inform the media of updates, and discuss with national authorities the best, safest ways to get aid to communities in crisis.
Aid hubs: World’s largest humanitarian warehouse
Planning is essential; much of the aid distributed to people in need across the world comes from storage facilities in Denmark, where UNICEF operates its Global Supply and Logistics Hub in Copenhagen.
Funding for these operations comes from nations around the world, which also donate year-round to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Managed by OCHA, the fund has to date provided more than $6 billion in life-saving assistance in more than 100 countries and territories.
The UN humanitarian affairs office also operates country-based funds (CBPF), managed by the UN, which makes money available to those working on the ground, including its own entities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Organizations.
OCHA allocated a record $1.2 billion through CBPF in 2022, helping partners to address the humanitarian needs of about 47 million people caught in crises.
Most recently, the UN agency released $5 million early this week to help people sheltering in Gaza and the West Bank.
Boats, trucks, planes, and even drones help the UN get aid to people in need. If you’ve ever wondered just how aid supplies and relief workers themselves get to crisis-torn countries where they are needed most, it’s the UN Humanitarian Air Service that steps in when no other means of reaching isolated communities are available.
Known by its acronym, UNHAS, the service was set up in 2003, is managed by WFP, and for the past two decades has been offering safe, reliable, cost-efficient, and effective passenger and light cargo transport for the wider humanitarian community to and from areas of crisis and intervention.
UNHAS has a fleet of more than 90 aircraft, including helicopters, that transports on average more than 33,000 passengers and about 300 metric tonnes of light cargo per month to 310 regular destinations.
Drones have been also been used to reach hard-to-access areas to deliver vaccines, medicines, diagnostic samples, blood products, and other commodities, according to UNICEF, which launched the first ever humanitarian drone corridor in Africa in 2016.
Delivery routes are critical, so the UN discusses transport agreements among nations during conflicts. That included aid in Syria as well as the Black Sea Initiative, agreed by Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine, which for one year brought more than 32 tonnes of food stuffs to 45 countries on three continents.
UNOCHA/David Swanson – Trucks carrying food assistance cross the Turkish border into Syria. (file)
Safe passages: On the ground
The UN and its agencies on the ground routinely request from national authorities the establishment of humanitarian corridors, or safe, unimpeded access for aid workers and deliveries to safely reach those who need help the most.
At the national level, when emergencies occur, the UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator manages relief efforts, working hand-in-hand with local authorities.
But, it is UN staff, predominantly national staff with their local knowledge and contacts, that enable much of the relief work and often face the biggest risks, including those employed by the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.
A dozen UN agencies and 17,000 staff members, mostly Palestine refugees, work in Gaza and the West Bank, home to more than two million people.
Despite falling rockets and closed borders, they continued to provide assistance in Gaza on Thursday, five days after the crisis began, even as the UN announced that 12 of its staff members had been killed by airstrikes.
“The humanitarian society responds despite the fact that the resources available in Gaza are not enough,” OCHA staff member Hamada El Bayari told UN News.
“There has been an almost complete stop of the supply chain, and resources have not for the last couple of days been authorized to come to Gaza,” he said. “It’s becoming, over the past days, extremely challenging for the humanitarian workers to the put their feet where the impact is.”
The World must act to protect persons with disabilities from the damaging of natural disaster, more than 5,000 victims on Afghan quake, global aid funding off track
The world must act on “unacceptable failures” to protect persons with disabilities from the damaging impact of living through a natural disaster, the UN office dealing with disaster risk said on Thursday.
Persons with disabilities face a “shocking lack of support” with no progress in the last decade, despite a huge increase in climate disasters worldwide, the new UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) report states, and that lack of progress could be a violation of international law.
Persons with disabilities make up 16 per cent of the world’s population and suffer an overall death rate due to disasters that is two to four times higher than the general population.
Comprehensive survey
The survey captured over 6,000 responses from 132 countries to evaluate progress on government policies that should be offering protection.
An initial survey focused on disability was conducted in 2013 and comes ahead of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction marked on Friday, on the theme of fighting inequality.
The new survey found limited progress on disability inclusion over the past ten years, with no significant advances in any region.
Specifically, 84 per cent of respondents in 2023 reported not having a personal preparedness plan in case of a disaster, such as knowing evacuation routes, available shelters and stocking up on emergency supplies.
In 2013, this figure was 71 per cent.
We’re grateful for the support of our donors who enabled us to respond quickly to the #HeratEarthquake.
Notably, the 2023 findings show that if sufficient early warning is provided, 39 per cent of respondents reported they would have no difficulty evacuating, compared to 26 per cent, if there was no warning.
Afghan quake: More than 5,000 victims reached, WHO reports
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) has reached 5,625 of the survivors most impacted by the earthquakes that struck the Herat region of Afghanistan over the weekend and again on Wednesday.
In an update, the health agency reported that just over 4,000 have received primary healthcare including mental health support, and over 1,000 were helped with trauma and rehab services.
Latest reports estimate that just over 11,000 people – some 1,835 families – have been impacted overall.
As of Wednesday night, WHO reported damage to 21 health facilities across 10 different districts, more than half of the destruction occurred as a result of the fresh earthquake and aftershocks that day.
A 650-bed regional hospital in Herat, received many of the injured, with 141 patients transferred there, including two in a critical condition, said WHO.
As of 10 October, the death toll stood at 1,294, with nearly 1,700 injured.
Global funding for aid off-track: OCHA
Humanitarians face a funding shortfall of $37 billion to respond to emergencies which affect millions of people in need around the world.
That’s the message from UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA), which said on Thursday that out of the more than $55 billion required to assist 248 million people this year, donors have provided just under a third of that as of the end of September – that’s even less than this time last year.
OCHA said the monthly decrease of global humanitarian funding is “of great concern”.
The humanitarian response plans for the Central African Republic and Somalia have seen the sharpest funding shortfalls compared to last year, by as much as 33 per cent less in the case of Somalia.
Funding for eight other humanitarian emergencies in Afghanistan, Chad, Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mozambique, Syria and Venezuela has dropped by more than 10 per cent.
Europe attracts many migrants and asylum seekers. Find out how the EU is improving its asylum and migration policies.
In 2015, there were 1.83 million illegal crossings at the EU’s external borders. While this number fell to about 330,000 in 2022, Parliament is working on a number of proposals to remedy shortcomings in the EU’s asylum and migration policies: from reforming the asylum system to strengthening border security, improving legal labour migration and promoting the integration of refugees.
Asylum seekers: sharing responsibility with frontline countries
In response to the refugee crisis in 2015, the European Commission presented proposals to reform the Common European Asylum System in 2016, including a reform of the Dublin System to better allocate asylum applicants among EU countries. The Dublin System put a huge burden on a limited number of EU countries with external borders because they were responsible for processing all asylum claims. However, EU countries failed to reach an agreement on how to share responsibility.
In 2020, the Commission proposed a new a New Pact on Migration and Asylum. The new asylum system aims to support front-line countries by introducing a new system of flexible contributions from other EU countries, ranging from the relocation of asylum seekers from the country of first entry, to returning people deemed to have no right to stay. The new system is based on voluntary cooperation and flexible forms of support, which could become requirements at times of pressure.
Parliament agreed on its negotiating position on the revision of the Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management in April 2023. It is now ready to start talks with EU countries, with the aim of finishing by February 2024.
Revamping the EU Agency for Asylum
In 2021, Parliament backed the transformation of the European Asylum Support Office into the EU Agency for Asylum. The revamped agency aims to help make asylum procedures in EU countries more uniform and faster.
Its 500 experts provide support to national asylum systems facing a high caseload, making overall EU migration management more efficient and sustainable. In addition, the new agency is in charge of monitoring whether fundamental rights are being respected in the context of international protection procedures and reception conditions in EU countries.
Providing EU funds for asylum
In 2021, MEPs backed the creation of a new Integrated Border Management Fund and agreed to allocate it €6.24 billion. The fund should help EU countries boost their capacities in border management while ensuring fundamental rights are respected. It also contributes to a common, harmonised visa policy and introduces protective measures for vulnerable people arriving in Europe, notably unaccompanied children.
Parliament also approved the renewed Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund with a budget of €9.88 billion for 2021-22. The new fund should contribute to strengthening the common asylum policy, develop legal migration in line with the needs of EU countries, support the integration of non-EU nationals and contribute to the fight against irregular migration. The funds should also serve to encourage EU countries to share the responsibility of hosting refugees and asylum seekers more fairly.
In addition to the asylum system, the EU has also established temporary protection mechanisms for specific groups of refugees or displaced people. One such mechanism is the Temporary Protection Directive, which provides a framework for granting temporary protection. The directive was created in 2001 in response to the conflict in the Balkans.
More recently, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022, the EU responded rapidly and showed solidarity in action by helping people in need. This included direct humanitarian aid, emergency civil protection assistance, and support at the border, as well as granting protection to those fleeing the war and entering the EU. For the first time in its history, the EU activated the Temporary Protection Directive, setting the legal rules to help manage the mass arrival of people.
Securing the EU’s external borders and managing migration flows
Countering irregular migration while respecting asylum seekers’ rights
The Parliament has been working to tighten border controls and improve EU countries’ ability to track people entering Europe. In April 2023, Parliament approved its position on revisions to the external border procedure. It will now begin negotiations with the Council. It proposes a better screening process, a faster asylum process at the borders and swift returns for rejected asylum seekers.
It includes the possibility of a faster and simplified procedure for asylum claims directly after screening. These should be completed in 12 weeks, including appeals. In the case of a rejection or dismissal of a claim, the failed applicant should be returned within 12 weeks.
The new rules would also limit the use of detention. While an asylum claim is being assessed or the return procedure is being processed, the asylum applicant has to be accommodated by the EU country. Detention should only be used as a last resort.
Reinforcing Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard
Frontex, the EU’s border and coast guard, helps to manage the EU’s external borders and to fight cross-border crime.
The refugee influx in 2015 put enormous pressure on national border authorities. Parliament called for a strengthening of Frontex and the Commission proposed to extend Frontex’s mandate and transform it into a fully-fledged European Border and Coast Guard Agency, with the aim of reinforcing the management and security of the EU’s external borders and supporting national border guards.
It was officially launched at the Bulgarian external border with Turkey in October 2016. Frontex supports EU and Schengen countries in all aspects of border management, from support on the ground and fighting cross-border crime, aerial surveillance and collecting information, to help with return procedures.
Frontex has a current standing corps of more than 2,000 border guards. There are plans to increase this to 10,000 border guards by 2027.
Internal border controls
EU countries have been reinstating border controls within the Schengen area over the last few years, and these controls often last for long periods. In order to preserve free movement while addressing genuine security threats, the Commission put forward a proposal in 2021.
As an alternative to internal border controls, the new rules promote police cooperation in border regions to address unauthorised movements within the Schengen area. Apprehended non-EU citizens with irregular status often arrive from another EU country, so if the two countries hold joint patrols, the irregular migrants may be transferred back to the first EU country. MEPs want to exclude several categories, including unaccompanied minors, from such returns.
MEPs also propose clear criteria for imposing internal border controls in response to serious threats. A justified reason, such as an identified and immediate threat of terrorism, is required before internal border controls can be introduced and such controls would have a time limit of up to eighteen months. If the threat persists, more border controls could be authorised by a Council decision.
The proposals also allow for the reintroduction of border controls in several countries for a period of up to two years when the Commission receives notifications about a particularly serious threat affecting many countries simultaneously.
Improving legal migration with work permits
The EU has also been working to boost legal migration to address labour shortages, fill skill gaps and boost economic growth with:
EU Blue Card: a work and residence permit for highly skilled non-EU workers
The single permit: a combined work and residence permit, valid for two years and country-specific
EU long-term resident status: this allows non-EU citizens to stay and work in the EU for an indefinite period. Once the status has been granted, it is possible to move and work freely within the EU
The single permit and the long-term resident status are currently being revised.
The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund in action
The EU is also taking steps to help migrants integrate in their new home countries. The 2021-2027 Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund provides direct funding to local and regional authorities for integration policies and programmes focusing on counselling, education, language and other training such as civic orientation courses and professional guidance.
Improving refugee integration with the new Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Reception Conditions Directive is being revised to ensure equivalent reception standards across EU countries when it comes to material conditions, health care and an adequate standard of living for those who request international protection.
To improve their chances of being able to live independently and integrate, asylum applicants should be allowed to work no later than six months from the date of the registration of their application. They will have access to language courses, as well as civic education courses or vocational training. All children requesting asylum should be enrolled in school at the latest two months after arrival.
Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on the rules in December 2022. It must be formally approved by both bodies before it can enter into force.
