Migration Archives

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed European Council President Charles Michel to Rome for a bilateral meeting on the topics to be discussed at the extraordinary April European Council meeting, including European competitiveness, migration and the European strategic agenda.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday (10 April) said his government would "protect" Poland against the European Union migrant relocation scheme as the bloc adopted a major overhaul of its asylum rules.

The much-controversial steady deployment of partnerships with countries of origin and transit is next in the EU leaders’ plan to reduce migration influxes, now that the European Parliament has ratified a large-scale reform on how the bloc will deal with migrants internally. 

Despite a nerve-wreaking buildup leading up to the vote on Wednesday (10 April) afternoon, and the final agreement to no one’s liking, the EU’s asylum and migration pact ultimately passed with a thin majority on certain parts of the package. 

If the European Parliament endorses the Asylum and Migration Pact on Wednesday (10 April), the EU will get closer to a revamped scheme for processing irregular migrants and asylum seekers at EU borders, but lawmakers and civil society are unhappy with the final text, heralding a complicated implementation. 

Last year's coup in Niger could bring about a surge in irregular arrivals to the EU, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said on Tuesday (9 April), the eve of a key vote on overhauling the bloc's migration rules ahead of a June election.

The European Union is open to the idea of sending asylum-seekers to outside countries, even if it is not willing to go quite as far as following Britain and its plans to fly irregular migrants to Rwanda.

Spain will scrap its so-called "golden visa" programme granting residency rights to foreigners who make large investments in real estate in the country, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told reporters on Monday (8 April).

Greece's conservative government promised on Monday (1 April) to offer extra financial aid and more staff to help the island of Crete and its tiny neighbour Gavdos handle a steep rise in arrivals of migrants trying to cross to Europe from Libya.

Bulgaria and Romania joined Europe's Schengen area of free movement on Sunday (31 Marc), opening up travel by air and sea without border checks after a 13-year wait.

More than 4,600 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain on small boats so far in 2024, a record total for the first three months of the year and giving Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a fresh political headache.

After Germany deported about two dozen people to Bulgaria, the Socialists accused the government of rubber stamping a "penal colony for criminals, murderers, rapists and money launderers".

The European Union and Egypt on Sunday signed a 7.4-billion-euro financial package to support the indebted north African country, boost energy sales to Europe and stem irregular migrant flows.

The EU border agency Frontex is drawing up 'potential scenarios' to assess how it might provide additional support, if needed, at the borders with the Gaza Strip, its executive director, Hans Leijtens, told a group of media, including Euractiv.

The new cooperation agreement between the EU's border agency Frontex and the UK was set up at the request of the British government, an official source from Frontex confirmed to Euractiv. 

The proposed reform of the Schengen Borders Code will legalise and expand targeted checks on racialized communities, giving carte blanche to member states to potentially use violence when larger groups of people try crossing their borders, writes Michele LeVoy.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suffered his first defeats over his legislation to send asylum seekers to Rwanda after the upper house of parliament demanded greater protections to be introduced before deportation flights can take off.

A grouping of northern European countries on Monday (4 March) agreed to work on a new "customs partnership" to disrupt the supply of small boats used to carry migrants cross the Channel, Britain's interior ministry said.

The new Pact on Migration and Asylum will not only violate human rights, but will also prove to be ineffective for the goals it has been conceived for, writes Gaia Romeo.

Fabrice Leggeri, the former boss of EU border agency Frontex who will run for the far-right Rassemblement National in the European elections, criticised European migration policy while touring the French-Italian border on Monday (19 February), saying Europe should "regain control of its borders".

The former director of the EU border agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, announced Saturday (17 February) he had joined France's far-right National Rally (RN).

Germany said Wednesday (14 February) it would probably prolong the checks on its eastern border it launched last autumn to curb migration, and extend the controls to all borders when it hosts the Euro 2024 football tournament.

This week, the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, LIBE, will vote on the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Hope Barker and Sonja Grabowsky explain what is at stake.

While the EU agreed on its first-ever legislative arsenal to fight violence against women, the final agreement provides no guarantee that undocumented migrant women will be able to lodge a complaint without risking deportation.