UNHCR has published the 2012 edition of the Global Trends Report, its leading annual report on the state of forced displacement in the world. The report documents the highest figures of displaced persons in the past 18 years, reaching 45.2 million people of whom 15.4 are refugees and almost a million asylum seekers. During 2012 7.6 million persons became newly displaced. The report indicates that 81% of the world's refugees are hosted by developing countries. 46% of the world's refugees are children with the number of unaccompanied or separated children increasing.
The factsheet on the Court's case law concerning the protection of minors was updated this month. It contains information on some cases dealing with detention of minors and migrant children and is available at the Court's website.
On 27 November the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament approved the draft text of the EUROSUR regulation. Negotiations with the European Council are now bound to start with a view to making the system operational as of 1 October 2013. EUROSUR will be a new border surveillance system designed to improve the monitoring, detection, identification, tracking, prevention and interception of illegal border crossings and it will serve as an information exchange system with the EU Member States and FRONTEX.
The Cypriot Presidency submitted a mid-term review of the Stockholm Programme to the European Council in view of the debate in the JHA in December 2012. Amongst other areas, it examined what developments have taken place in the areas of asylum/migration, illegal immigration and border control.
UNHCR published on 14/06/2012 its Statement on the Application of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol to Victims of Trafficking in France.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in the framework of its sixtieth session which took place between 29 May and 15 June 2012, considered the consolidated second and third periodic report of Greece at its 1710th and 1711th meetings held on 6 June 2012 and adopted its concluding observations on 15 June 2012.
The Jesuit Refugee Service released a report on the strained asylum systems in Croatia and Macedonia. Poor protection capacities in Macedonia, a frequent country of transit for asylum seekers, together with an inadequate asylum system in Croatia, means the EU must take action to prevent another collapse like in Greece. The number of asylum seekers in Croatia rose by 50% between 2011 and 2012, and this trend may continue. The state of Croatia’s asylum system is especially important as it is about to join the EU, and as a border state it will become a new point of entry into the Union.
The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) has found that Belgium violated several rights of the European Social Charter of 1961with respect to migrant and asylum-seeking children. Belgium will now have to take measures to ensure the protection of their rights in the future and report back to the ECSR.
A new version of the Rules of the Court, agreed earlier in the year by the Plenary Court, entered into force on 1 May. It can be consulted on the Court's website.
The applicant is a Brazilian national who had lived in French Guiana since his childhood. In January 2007 he was stopped by the police and, as he was unable to prove that his presence on French soil was legal, an administrative removal order and an administrative detention order were issued against him. He applied for judicial review of the removal and for the stay of the removal order the next day. However, only 50 minutes after lodging his application, Mr. de Souza was removed to Brazil.
