Last 5 February, the 10th instrument of ratification of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR was deposited, producing the effect of its the entry into force this 5 May. The Protocol was adopted in 2008 and empowers the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a UN Treaty Body entrusted with the monitoring of the implementation of the ICESCR, to receive individual complaints and to conduct inquiries in cases of grave or systematic violations of the rights under the Covenant (such as the right to work, to an adequate standard of living, to health or to education).
In the first analysis of the steps taken in 2012 with regard to the new EU legislation on asylum, Statewatch reviews the pieces of legislation which were agreed, but not adopted, in 2012, and those which were still under negotiation by the end of the year. Under the first category fall the Directive on Reception Conditions and the Dublin Regulation, while negotiations are still on going for the Directive on asylum procedures and the Eurodac Regulation. The outstanding issues concerning these two pieces of legislation are also analysed.
Frontex has made public its Working Programme for 2013. It announces changes to the structure and allocation of resources owing to issues such as the implementation of the EUROSUR system, the operational support to Greece for its border management and the utilization of new structures and types of officers.
Frontex's Working Programme for 2013 is available here.
(Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 – Determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third‑country national – Article 3(2) – Sovereignty clause – Article 15 – Humanitarian clause – Application of Regulation No 343/2003 consistent with fundamental rights – Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights – Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment – Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights – Respect for private and family life)
The asylum seeker is a young man from Libya who had arrived in Malta in 2010 with a Maltese Schengen visa. He only spent one day in Malta and then took a plane to Switzerland, where he asked for asylum. The Swiss Federal Office for Migration (FOM, first instance asylum authority) asked Malta to take him back (based on art. 9.2 Dublin Regulation), to which the Maltese authorities agreed. The FOM took a negative Dublin decision with the intention of transferring the asylum seeker to Malta.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment adopted a report drawn up following its visit to Malta in September 2011. The CPT examined conditions at detention centres for foreigners.
The applicant, Mr. Muneer, is an Afghan national who arrived in Belgium in 2009 and applied for asylum. As it appeared that he had been in Greece previously, Belgium arranged for his return under the Dublin regulation. Mr. Muneer was ordered to quit the Belgian territory and placed in a detention centre. His return to Greece was organised, but after he refused to board the plane, a second detention order valid for two months was issued.
The report presents the various requirements in EU and national law and policy 'aiming at securing border crossings of children, safeguarding their rights as well as fighting against abduction and trafficking', and makes recommendations. It expresses support for the implementation of the 'one person-one passport' requirement, as replacing the 'family passport'. The Commission does not endorse a proposed requirement that the names of the child's legal guardian(s) be included in the child's passport.
The applicant is an Iranian national who applied for asylum in Turkey in 2004. Pending a decision on his application, he was granted a temporary residence permit. In 2007 he was convicted of a drugs offence and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Following his release in December 2008, he was placed in a foreigners' removal centre from which he only was released when he was granted refugee status in The Netherlands and moved there in April 2010.
During its plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament adopted in first reading the proposals for decisions of the Parliament and the Council with a view to increasing the co-financing rate of the European Refugee Fund, the European Return Fund and the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals. This proposal aims at increasing the co-financing rate for certain Member States experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability.
