UNHCR has published its full report on credibility assessment in EU asylum systems. The report provides an insight into state practices concerning the assessment of credibility in asylum procedures and seeks to contribute to their further harmonisation in view of the significant discrepancies existing between member states and within national jurisdictions as regards the outcomes of such assessment.
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.
The document sets out what has happened since 8 March 2012 when the Council approved Council Conclusions on a common framework for solidarity mechanisms. It also states that the Commission has announced that it will invite Member States’ experts to a meeting on solidarity issues in January 2013. The objective of this meeting will be to prepare the solidarity part of the next Annual Report on Immigration and Asylum, in particular by collecting information about Member States’ needs and achievements.
The main proceedings concern three unaccompanied minors who applied for asylum in the United Kingdom after having previously lodged asylum applications in the Netherlands and Italy. The British authorities decided first to send them back to those countries in application of the Dublin Regulation, but later they ruled that the UK would take responsibility for their applications under the sovereignty clause. However, the minors did not withdraw the appeals they had lodged against the initial decision to sent them back.
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.
