01 June 2023
The Leopard Paradox?
In early May, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosted a roundtable to discuss institutional reforms designed to improve “the stability of governments and legislatures, and respect for citizens’ votes at the ballot box.” A central campaign promise of hers, the reforms are meant to address Italians’ exacerbating distrust of political institutions, rooted in the fact that Italy’s administrations are among the most short-lived in Europe. This adds to its comparatively low levels of ‘clarity of responsibility’. Three options emerged from the discussion. I will briefly discuss the potential and challenges of each option. Continue reading >>
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12 May 2023
Trading Rights for Responsibility
The newly published compromise text of the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR) suggests to render border procedures mandatory in some cases, while also permitting first-entry states to derogate from them once their “adequate capacity” is reached. This adaptable approach to the use of border procedures seeks to resolve a long-standing disagreement between central EU countries and first-entry states. While the former consider the obligatory use of border procedures necessary to prevent onwards or ‘secondary’ movement of asylum-seekers, southern EU states argue that their mandatory use would place a further strain on their resources and overburden their capacities for processing asylum claims. This blogpost first explains the problems with border procedures, reviews their role in increasing responsibility of first-entry states, and explains why the new compromise Draft is unlikely to resolve the disagreement between first-entry states and other Members States. Continue reading >>
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26 April 2023
Flexible Responsibility or the End of Asylum Law as We Know It?
On March 21 2023, the Council released a revised draft proposal for an Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR). It reintroduces the concept of ‘flexible responsibility’ — or ‘adaptable responsibility’ — into the EU’s migration management. Already included in the controversial Instrumentalisation Regulation of 14 December 2021, flexible responsibility is the idea that Member States should be allowed to derogate from normally applicable asylum standards when faced with sudden migratory pressures. While the Instrumentalisation Regulation was rejected in December 2022, this post will detail how the new AMMR draft threatens to reintroduce the idea of flexible/adaptable derogations — including, potentially, those originally foreseen in the Instrumentalisation Regulation — into the EU’s asylum framework and why we should reject it. Continue reading >>
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11 June 2018
Refugees in Orbit – again!
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s new far-right home secretary, tweeted “Vittoria!” after news broke that the 629 persons stranded aboard the M.S. Aquarius would be forced to proceed to the Spanish city of Valencia rather than being allowed to disembark at much closer ports in Sicily. But for whom was it a “victory”? Continue reading >>18 January 2016
Asyl und Migration – Recht und Wirklichkeit
Vernünftige und angemessene Reaktionen in Gesetzgebung und Rechtsanwendung sind, wie so häufig, auch in der Asyl- und Migrationspolitik zugleich die kompliziertesten, unbequemsten und langwierigsten, aber letztlich doch die einzig möglichen Wege, auch wenn sie die Ziele nicht immer zu vollster Zufriedenheit erreichen werden. Leider ist viel Zeit durch gut gemeinte Appelle, auch solche an die gesamteuropäische Solidarität, durch halbherzige bis völlig ungeeignete Reaktionen und teilweise durch abstruse, jenseits des rechtlich Möglichen und des tatsächlich Vollziehbaren liegende Reaktionsvorschläge vergeudet worden. Je länger dieser Zustand andauert, desto schmerzlicher für alle wird das schlussendlich unausweichliche Umsteuern. Continue reading >>06 November 2015
Verteilung unbegleiteter minderjähriger Geflüchteter auf die Bundesländer: eine Sache des Kindeswohls?
Unbegleitete minderjährige Geflüchtete werden künftig wie Erwachsene auch auf die Bundesländer verteilt. Dafür sorgt das „Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Unterbringung, Versorgung und Betreuung ausländischer Kinder und Jugendlicher", das am Sonntag in Kraft getreten ist. Die Neuregelungen werden vor allem mit dem Vorrang des Kindeswohls gerechtfertigt, der sich aus Art. 3 der UN-Kinderrechtskonvention ergibt. Doch trägt die Neuregelung wirklich den Belangen des Kindeswohls Rechnung und läuft ihnen nicht vielmehr zuwider? Continue reading >>
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01 November 2015
Jenseits von Dublin: zulässige Rückschiebungen in die Nachbarstaaten
Wie kann man in der Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Ländern mittelfristig wieder ein funktionierendes Asylsystem in Europa und darüber hinaus etablieren? Das ist die Königsfrage der derzeitigen Debatte um die Bewältigung der Flüchtlingskrise. Zwischenschritte hierzu könnten sein, das bilaterale Rückführungsabkommen mit Österreich zu reaktivieren oder sicherer Aufenthaltsorte auszuweiten und so im geltenden deutschen Recht die Verantwortung anderer Staaten zu betonen. Continue reading >>30 October 2015
Grenze auf, Grenze zu? Die transnationale Wirkung von Rechtsverstößen im Dublin-System
In der Flüchtlingskrise bedarf es einer europäischen Lösung. Die verbreitete Vorstellung, man könne Flüchtlinge an der deutschen Grenze massenhaft abweisen, erweist sich vor dem Hintergrund des europäischen Asylrechts als Irrglaube. Dieses beruht auf dem wechselseitigen Vertrauen darauf, dass alle Mitgliedstaaten die rechtlichen Vorgaben einhalten. Die Rechtsverstöße einiger gehen nun zulasten Deutschlands. Einen Ausweg aus diesem Dilemma wird man nicht an der nationalen Grenze finden. Continue reading >>21 September 2015
Crisis, what Crisis? Some Views from Spain on the Recent Refugee Crisis in Europe
The Spanish approach to the ongoing refugee crisis is certainly striking given the general lack of involvement and indifference with which the national government has addressed the issue. The same cannot be said of other subnational authorities (i.e. autonomous regions, municipalities, etc.) or the general public, who have been particularly active and eventually contributed to the mobilisation of the national government, thus modifying its initial attitude. One should not find extraordinary this reluctance in addressing the problem of refugees, as it in fact reveals a remarkable continuity with the actions of previous governments, whatever their political colour. This undoubtedly constitutes quite a paradox: even if during its recent turbulent history Spain has been generating refugees in large numbers, with the establishment of democracy its attitude towards the notion of asylum revealed a striking lack of ambition. Continue reading >>
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26 August 2015
Responsibility Sharing of Asylum Seekers in the EU: Good Quality First Reception is the Key
Why are we surprised that asylum seekers will go to great efforts to arrive somewhere where they have a chance of decent reception conditions rather than being forced to live on the street or locked up in horrific detention centres? Clearly good quality first reception is the key to equitable distribution of asylum seekers. Until there are good quality reception facilities available in all Member States there is no point even addressing the question of responsibility sharing. Continue reading >>
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