EU migration

Unfair, incoherent and duplicit EU trade policies in North Africa have contributed to job losses, brain drains and overwhelmingly negative impacts on those who can least afford it, an Oxfam analysis released today has found.

The European Commission has recently proposed in its new Pact for Migration and Asylum that each member state will have to establish screening centres to monitor human rights violations. But this proposal is not enough, and four steps are needed to make it effective in achieving its aim to stop human rights violations at the border.

For too long the EU’s migration policies have ignored the priorities of the countries it partners with for the sake of its own border security and domestic priorities. These have permeated the domestic migration and asylum policies of the Maghreb countries it supports, at the cost of people’s interests.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 has been reported in the refugee camp of Moria in Lesbos, Greece. The Greek government and its EU partners must immediately take urgent action to avoid a health tragedy in the camp.

The new Greek asylum law that entered into force on 1 January 2020 has significantly diminished protection for people seeking asylum. The law and its amendments increase asylum seekers’ vulnerabilities, while limiting access to their fundamental right to seek asylum and be protected from serious risks.

The new Greek asylum system is designed to deport people rather than offer them safety and protection, warned the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) and Oxfam today.

The Greek Asylum Service has issued thousands of rejections to asylum-seekers while its public-facing services were closed for over two months.

The European Union’s latest row with Turkey will aggravate what is already Europe’s worst humanitarian disaster, Oxfam and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) said on the fourth anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal.

EU development aid is increasingly being spent to close borders, stifle migration and push for returns of migrants to Africa, reveals new research published by Oxfam.