The Council and the Parliament have reached an agreement on the EUROSUR regulation. This agreement will be formally adopted by the Parliament in September and later on by the Council. EUROSUR will establish a mechanism that will allow border surveillance authorities to share operational information among themselves and with FRONTEX in order to reduce the number of irregular immigrants entering the EU undetected. The regulation will apply to the surveillance of land and sea external borders.
The applicant, Mr. K., is a Russian national of Chechen origin who lives in Vienna. After the killing of his father and after having suffered arrests and beatings by Russian soldiers himself, he arrived in Austria together with his mother in 2004 and requested asylum. Their claims were rejected. However, on appeal his mother was recognized as a refugee.
During its meeting on 6-7 December the Council confirmed the political agreement on the Dublin Regulation and was informed about the state-of-play of the outstanding legislative proposals concerning the Common European Asylum System:
The European Commission will be presenting its Smart Borders package to the upcoming Justice and Home Affairs Council of 7-8 March. The package includes three proposals for regulations:
The applicant, Zhakhongir Abidov, is a Kyrgyzstan national who was born in 1981 and lives in Novosibirsk (Russia). An ethnic Uzbek, he has regularly travelled to Russia for work purposes since 2001. In June 2010 he was arrested in Novosibirsk as he was wanted by the Uzbek authorities on suspicion of setting up an extremist organisation whose aim is to overthrow the constitutional order in Uzbekistan; his extradition was also granted shortly thereafter. However, he has since been released in March 2011 when the Russian courts quashed the decision to extradite him.
The paper "Distinction, Discretion, Discrimination: the new frontiers of gender-related claims to asylum" was presented by Ms. Alice Edwards, Senior Legal Coordinator and Chief, Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section, Division of International Protection, UNHCR during the Gender, Migration and Human Rights Conference, organized by the European University Institute in Florence, Italy Uniteon 18-19 June 2012.
(Area of freedom, security and justice - Directive 2008/115/EC - Common standards and procedures for returning illegally staying third-country nationals - Applicability to asylum seekers - Possibility of keeping a third-country national in detention after an application for asylum has been made)
The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted during its 22nd session its first resolution dealing with redress and rehabilitation of victims of torture. The resolution reminds states of their international obligations with respect to the prohibition of torture. These include the provision of redress to victims, among others in the form of rehabilitation.
A reference for a preliminary ruling concerning the impact Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on return decisions was published this week by the CJEU. It was lodged on 3 April 2013 by the Tribunal administratif de Melun (France) and the questions read as follows:
(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Area of freedom, security and justice - Directive 2008/115/EC - Common standards and procedures for returning illegally staying third-country nationals - National legislation providing for a fine which may be replaced by an order for expulsion or home detention)
Referred Questions In the light of the principles of sincere cooperation and the effectiveness of directives,
