By Professor Elspeth Guild, Queen Mary University of London and Valsamis Mitsilegas, Professor of European and Global Law, University of Liverpool The Rwanda policy to send asylum seekers from the UK to a country in Africa for reception and determination of their claims is a perverse result of Brexit. As long as the UK was part of the EU, the Dublin system of allocating responsibility for asylum seekers across the then 28 Member States diminished the possibility of secondary movements within the area (notwithstanding the generally weak application of the system). The UK’s departure from ..read more

Valsamis Mitsilegas,  Professor of European and Global Law, University of Liverpool  Previously published in the blog of University of Liverpool’s School of Law and Social Justice. A key feature of the EU policy to prevent migrants from reaching the EU external border has been the criminalisation – and in essence the overcriminalisation- of facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and stay. The EU criminal law framework dates back from over twenty years ago, in the third pillar, pre-Lisbon era. This framework is known as the EU ‘facilitators’ package’ and consists of a (then) fir ..read more

By Paula García Andrade, Associate Professor,  Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Eleonora Frasca, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) The Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Tunisia: Issues of procedure and substance on the informalisation of migration cooperation On 16 July 2023, the European Union and Tunisia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) “on a strategic and global partnership” whereby, in short, the EU engages to disburse direct budgetary support and accelerate EU funding with a view to strengthening cooperation with Tunisia in macroecono ..read more

Dr Meltem Ineli-Ciger, Associate Professor, Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Law Over the years, the EU-Turkey Statement of March 2016 and particularly EU funding have notably increased Türkiye’s detention capacities, raising questions about the EU’s support to the establishment and widespread use of alternatives to immigration detention in Türkiye. Türkiye’s recent amendments to its main asylum and migration law introduced seven alternatives to immigration detention, aiming to uphold the rights of migrants and reduce detention reliance. This shift necessitates academic scrutiny. This p ..read more

Valsamis Mitsilegas,  Professor of European and Global Law, University of Liverpool  Previously published in the blog of University of Liverpool’s School of Law and Social Justice. The ruling (R (on the application of AAA (Syria) and others) (Respondents/Cross Appellants), [2023] UKSC 42), emanates from an appeal concerned with the Home Office’s policy that asylum seekers in the UK should not have their claims considered in country, but should instead be sent to Rwanda to claim asylum there. With their claims being decided by the Rwandan authorities; if their claims a ..read more

Galina Cornelisse, Professor of Courts and Transnational Justice, VU Amsterdam European border agency Frontex’ involvement in human rights violations has received considerable attention over the last few years. In a political order based upon the rule of law, any arguable claim that individual rights have been violated should be subject to an effective judicial remedy. However, when it comes to Frontex’ operational activities, such remedies are not readily available. Case T-600/21, in which the General Court (GC) dismissed a claim for damages by a Syrian family against Frontex, did not only s ..read more

SERIES OF BLOG POSTS ON MIGRATION AND TRADE PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. ELSPETH GUILD NUMBER 6 By Amanda Bisong, Policy Officer at ECDPM Center for Africa-Europe Relations This series of blog posts on Trade & Migration is published upon the initiative of Prof. Elspeth Guild  in relation with the controversial proposal for a regulation on the scheme of preferences for developing countries that the Commission links to the issue of readmission of irregular migrants. Several EU Member States have called on the commission to explore using all relevant EU policies, i ..read more

By Daniel Thym, Director of the Research Center Immigration & Asylum Law, University of Konstanz Germany has EU’s largest economy and is among the first countries to be hit perceptibly by demographic change. That makes it a perfect test for how European economies with robust welfare states may regulate labour migration in the future. No less than three years after a first round of substantial reforms, the Bundestag opened the labour market even further. While the new points system receives much attention, another element may prove more significant. The future Germany rulebook will rest on ..read more

SERIES OF BLOG POSTS ON MIGRATION AND TRADE PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. ELSPETH GUILD NUMBER 5 By Sandra Lavenex, University of Geneva   This series of blog posts on Trade & Migration is published upon the initiative of Prof. Elspeth Guild  in relation with the controversial proposal for a regulation on the scheme of preferences for developing countries that the Commission links to the issue of readmission of irregular migrants. The proposal to temporarily withdraw trade preferences under the EU’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) towards countr ..read more

By Jean-Yves Carlier and Eleonora Frasca, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), members of the Equipe droits et migrations (EDEM)      This is a revised version of the commentary appeared in “Free movement of persons in the EU”, the yearly case law review published in French in the Journal de droit européen, No. 298, April 2023, pp. 198-213. Interpreting or reforming Schengen? In the Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark (NW) (C-368/20 & C-369/20) judgment of April 2022, the Court of Justice opted for a strict interpretation of the Schengen Borders Code (SBC) by ..read more