The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants visited Greece at the end of November in view of the report he will be presenting to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2013 on the management of the EU external borders. At the end of his visit he pointed out that the large number of irregular migrants stuck in Greece is a result of the EU policies and practices and that hence solidarity and responsibility-sharing within the EU were necessary to ensure respect for the human rights of migrants in Greece.
The case concerns a couple of Somali origin, one of whose members had been recognized as a refugee in Ireland, which wished to reunite a niece and a nephew who had been their de facto wards since they were orphaned. Their application was refused on the grounds that the nephew and the niece were not dependent on the applicants, who then appealed to the Irish High Court.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published on 19/06/2012 a press release announcing the publication of statistics on results of asylum decisions in the 27 European Union (EU27) member states. These statistics were published on the occasion of the World Refugee Day on 20 June 2012.
(Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 - Determining the Member State responsible - Unaccompanied minor - Successive applications for asylum lodged in two Member States - Absence of a member of the family of the minor in the territory of a Member State - Second paragraph of Article 6 of Regulation No 343/2003 - Transfer of the minor to the Member State in which he lodged his first application - Compatibility - Child's best interests - Article 24(2) of the Charter)
The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, has released her activity report, covering a time span from August 2012 until February 2013. The report will be put to the Human Rights Council during its next session. The report comprises a thematic analysis of the integration of a human rights-based approach in measures to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons and which leads to human trafficking.
The International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) released guidance for the assessment of credibility in international protection claims under the Qualification Directive. The paper first explains the legal and historic background of asylum assessment and the international and EU legal frameworks of international protection and then proposes an outline for the credibility of assessment in different stages. Drawing from European and international best practice, it also sets out criteria and standards for the assessment of credibility.
The European Commission has presented its new proposal for a Regulation concerning operations coordinated by Frontex for the surveillance of external sea borders. In 2012, the CJEU annulled the previous decision regulating this issue (Decision 2010/252/EU) after an action brought by the European Parliament, who considered that it had been adopted through an inappropriate procedure. The new proposal replaces the annulled decision.
Amnesty International published a report on Greece’s practice of “pushing back” intercepted migrants to Turkey. In 2012, the Greek-Turkish border saw the highest number of irregular entries into the EU out of all the EU’s external borders. Many of those crossing the border are nationals from unstable countries like Afghanistan and Syria. Amnesty’s research shows that some, who are able to cross the border into Greece are sometimes pushed straight back to Turkey in violation of international law without the chance to apply for asylum in Greece.
The main proceedings concern a Turkish national who entered Czech territory irregularly and was placed in detention for 60 days. Mr. Arslan presented an asylum application and announced his intention to exhaust every remedy against an eventual negative decision. A few weeks later, his detention was extended for another 120 days. Mr.
The applicants are Mohammad Rasoul Madah, an Iranian national, his partner, Maria Kerkenezova, and their son, Daniel Mohammad Rasoul Madah, both Bulgarian nationals. They were born in 1965, 1973 and 2006 respectively. Granted a permanent residence permit in Bulgaria in 2001, Mohammad Rasoul Madah subsequently met and started living with Ms Kerkenezova, with whom he had a son, the third applicant.
