News Highlights: Eritrea Foundation summons EU over forced labour, Fighting around Tripoli, Roundtable discusses Libya
4 Apr 2019

News Highlights: Eritrea Foundation summons EU over forced labour, Fighting around Tripoli, Roundtable discusses Libya

by | posted in: Africa, Calais, Detention, EEPA news and activities, Eritrea, European Parliament, European Politics, European Union, Frontex, Horn of Africa region, Libya, Médecins Sans Frontières, Mediterranean Sea, Migration, Netherlands, Torture, Weekly news highlights | 0

In this week’s news highlights: Eritrea Foundation summons the EU to stop supporting use of forced labour in Eritrea Project; Roundtable at the EU parliament hosted by MEPs and EEPA; EU increases on FRONTEX capacity and reach; UNHCR Senior Official raised concerns on the situation of 35 children in Calais; 250 NGOs ask Angela Merkel for a Mediterranean solidarity plan; Dutch government blocks Sea Watch 3 and other NGOs; The UN Human Rights Committee expresses grave concern on the human rights situation in Eritrea; Fighting in south Tripoli, UN expresses concern; report describes the shift from smuggling to trafficking in Libya; and UNHCR calls for more funding for refugees in Libya.

The African Union criticizes the EU’s disembarkation platforms
28 Feb 2019

The African Union criticizes the EU’s disembarkation platforms

by | posted in: African Union, European Union, IOM, Migration, UNHCR | 0

The African Union (AU), with Egypt as the current chair state, is hoping to halt the plan to establish so called regional disembarkation platforms proposed by EU leaders during the summer of 2018. The Guardian’s article reveals that the AU member states, in their ‘common African position paper’, discourage African coastal states from any cooperation with Brussels as the EU’s proposition would go against international law and would cause a creation of “de facto detention centers”

EU leaders push on security and border control in the first EU – Arab League meeting
28 Feb 2019

EU leaders push on security and border control in the first EU – Arab League meeting

by | posted in: Asylum Seekers, European Politics, European Union, Human Trafficking, Migration, Refugees in the EU | 0

On February 24th and 25th, in Sharm el-Sheikh, European and Arab League leaders took part in the first League of Arab States-European Union summit, presided by Donald Tusk, president of the European council and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egyptian president. At the summit, several high-level EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian and British prime ministers, Giuseppe Conte and Theresa May, were present. Migration was one of the main topics that was discussed, with the EU interested in giving the Arab League a bigger role in curbing migration. The two blocs have agreed to hold the summit every three years in rotation, with the next gathering due in Brussels in 2022.