Many observers see in the politics of the European member states a profound divide between the ‘old Europe’ and the so-called Visegrad group, composed of Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In their view, Viktor Orbàn’s xenophobic campaign against the ‘enforced relocation of non-Hungarians in Hungary’ supported by 98% of voters highlights this division, notwithstanding the small turnout (40% of registered voters) in the vote of October 2. The reluctance of Visegrad countries to receive (...)
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A reinforced Frontex agency EU turns a deaf ear to NGO’s warnings
22 September 2016
More powerful than ever and enjoying complete impunity, the EU border management agency has a new name with a reinforced mandate. The European Union has indeed opted for an increase in the means allocated to deportation, control and external cooperation activities, with no regard for the rights of migrants and refugees.
By reshaping Frontex’s mandate - now the “European Border and Coast Guard Agency” – to reinforce the agency’s capacities, the European Union (EU) disrespects (...)The new mandate of Frontex agency The EU obsessed with waging a war against migrants and refugees
In the past three years, the joint campaign Frontexit has denounced the incompatibility of the Frontex agency with the respect of fundamental rights. The establishment of a new European border guard body to replace Frontex, which the European Parliament approved last 6 July, is yet another step further in the war waged by the European Union (EU) against migrants and refugees.
Over a year since the announcement that Frontex agency would be reinforced to address the so-called « migration (...)European Court of Human Rights turns a blind eye on migrants’ life endangerment in Chios
Press release of the Gisti - 28 June 2016
From 22 to 30 May, 2015, the GISTI organised an exploratory mission in the Greek islands of Kios and Lesbos. Three lawyers went there with the primary aim of assessing the migrants’ needs of legal assistance and the possibilities of taking legal action. After a long information collection work, the Gisti decided to initiate a request for emergency measures to the European Court of Human Rights. The appeal was logded on June 16th by 51 Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi nationals who are forcibly (...)
More dangerous, more opaque, more powerful
MEPs must say NO to the new Frontex!
On 6 July, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary, will approve the replacement of Frontex by a European border-guards and coast-guards body. This new agency will actually turn out to be a reinforced version of Frontex agency with more powers, still lacking independent control over its activities, if not human rights violations occurring during operations it is coordinating.
It is very likely that the European parliament will adopt a text which wrongly presents migration as threat to (...)