The EU is fast-tracking asylum decisions, labeling countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, and Morocco as “safe.” Could this put vulnerable people at risk? In this episode of Briefed, Léa Marchal unpacks the EU’s new regulations on safe countries and safe third countries — and the real human impact behind the numbers.
Samuel Nyabyenda Kwizera, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and a professional dancer, is married to a Belgian national with whom he has two Belgian children. His life was upended and his family torn apart after Belgian authorities allegedly tampered with his Rwandan passport.
MEPs prepare to vote on a controversial deportation bill while debates intensify over Europe’s security amid the Iran war. Armenia’s prime minister addresses parliament, ministers tackle labour shortages and EU finances, and tensions rise over Ukraine funding as Hungary threatens a veto ahead of next week’s EU summit.
First launched in late 2022, the so-called High Level Network for Returns (HLNR) used the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel as a justification to enforce the exchange of data of individuals with a deportation order and flagged as “potential terrorists”.
“It has become evident that the necessary majority for a compromise has not materialised,” the centre-right MEP François-Xavier Bellamy said in an email to his counterparts, seen by EUobserver, ahead of a vote on the controversial deportation bill.
Migration control is at the heart of a planned ‘strategic partnership’ between the EU and Senegal.
A senior EU diplomat told reporters that ministers will focus on ways to compel people to return home voluntarily, amid wider migration talks on working with Lebanon and Libya.
Like much recent EU migration legislation, the proposal was presented without a comprehensive fundamental rights impact assessment. Sixteen UN experts have already raised concerns about its compatibility with international law. Yet EU institutions are rushing the file through the legislative process.
Iran is the second-largest refugee hosting country in the world, spooking leaders in Europe of any possible mass exodus, with the commission stepping up monitoring and cooperation with relevant UN agency and countries in the region.
The new EU-Swiss trade pact does not include a cap on freedom of movement, despite Switzerland’s focus on migration control.
THIS WEEK offers a weekly snapshot of the key developments in Brussels and across Europe over the next seven days, published every Monday morning.
Under Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s new migration law revives largely symbolic deterrence measures like the “naval blockade” and the Albania model that are unlikely to boost returns or reduce arrivals, while pragmatic labour regularisations proceed quietly in the background. However, voters are exposed primarily to the spectacle of deterrence.
The International Organization for Migration warns that growing restrictions on access to information about search-and-rescue operations along Europe’s sea routes are making it increasingly difficult to verify a rising number of deaths.
“The idea that you can send somebody or people to another country without individual assessment is a violation of basic refugee law,” human rights commissioner Michael O’Flaherty told EUobserver.
“We aim to work from the political centre and build constructive, workable compromises,” said the office of Malik Azmani, a Dutch liberal from the Renew Europe faction, who is leading talks on the bill.
Iran’s population today exceeds 93 million— and is hosts six million Afghan refugees.
In the event of regional war, both Iranians and displaced Afghans would inevitably seek routes toward Europe.
The EU is readying new rules to speed up deportations of irregular migrants — but dozens of NGOs warn the measures could mirror hard-line tactics used by US immigration authorities. Is Europe about to take a tougher turn on migration?
“The problem that we’re pursuing here is not to establish whether things are illegal, it is to establish whether politically it is undesirable,” admitted Dirk Gotnik, a Dutch centre-right MEP with the European People’s Party.
Spain’s move forces a harder conversation. Is it better to pretend half a million workers do not exist, or to regulate the reality already on the ground?
Greek authorities have issued an European Arrest Warrant against Norwegian human rights activist Tommy Olsen, who leads the Aegean Boat Report, supporting migrants.