A new report by the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) outlines ways for advocates to engage with legal systems on national and international levels. Drawing on discussions among representatives from key monitoring bodies, legal experts, and service providers at PICUM’s Annual Workshop, the report is a guide for practitioners that can be used to enforce the fundamental rights of undocumented migrants through mechanisms at the national level and in the EU, the Council of Europe, and the UN.
Next Tuesday, the CJEU will be holding a hearing concerning the case of Abdullahi, a preliminary reference lodged by the Austrian Asylum Court (Asylgerichtshof) in August 2012 concerning the Dublin Regulation. The questions referred are the following:
The negotiating group of the 47 Council of Europe member states and the European Union has agreed on a draft instrument for the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. Through this instrument, the European Union accedes to the European Convention on Human Rights, to its Protocol and to Protocol no. 6. The main features of the agreement are the following:
The applicant is an Uzbek national who was arrested in Russia in July 2010 and detained with a view to his extradition to Uzbekistan, where he was wanted on charges of public appeals to overthrow the constitutional order in connection with his presumed membership of the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir religious organisation. The Uzbek extradition request was accepted by the Russian authorities. However, the decision to extradite him was quashed by the Supreme Court and Mr. Zokhidov was released in April 2011.
The applicant, Moshood Abiola Balogun, is a Nigerian national who was born in 1986 and has been living in the United Kingdom since the age of three. Convicted of serious drugs-related offenses, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment in 2007 and informed of the authorities intention to deport him. His appeal against deportation was rejected by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in March 2008.
Last week the Council reached an agreement with the European Parliament on the Schengen Governance legislative proposals, which include a regulation on a monitoring mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis and an amendment to the Schengen Borders Code regarding the temporary reintroduction of border control at internal borders in exceptional circumstances. These will include serious threat to public policy or internal security and serious deficiencies relating to the external border controls.
The European Court of Human Rights and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency launched this week their Handbook on European Law relating to asylum, borders and immigration.
The applicant is a Georgian national. She entered Greece in 2005 with a three-month residence permit which she overstayed. In 2009 she was arrested and placed in detention with a view to her expulsion. The authorities decided on her expulsion and ordered her detention pending execution for a maximum of six months. While in detention, she submitted an asylum application. She repeatedly challenged her detention, complaining at the same time about her detention conditions.
