An increasing number of EU member states are using COVID-19 vaccine certificates to determine access to services and civic spaces. While many see this as a way to boost uptake of the vaccine among those hesitating, undocumented migrants will risk experiencing even more exclusion without enjoying broader access to the vaccines or other COVID-19-related care.

For many undocumented migrants, registering for a vaccine can be challenging or outright impossible, for instance when social security numbers are required. Even if they can register, countries often have no specific policy safeguarding their personal data from being transmitted to immigration authorities. And even when an undocumented person is able to get a vaccine without risking immigration consequences, they may still experience challenges in registering for and obtaining a vaccination certificate.

Besides barriers to getting vaccines and certificates, the certificates themselves raise concerns about the increased policing of various spaces to the detriment of fundamental rights, particularly for groups already facing criminalisation.

Read more in our blog, which was further adapted and published as an op-ed on Al Jazeera.

Last December, volunteers from a local humanitarian organisation and from the Lithuanian chapter of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) were fined 100 euros each for helping a migrant in distress at the border between Lithuania and Belarus. According to the Lithuanian authorities, the humanitarian workers entered the emergency zone on the Lithuania-Belarus border without official permits, which were introduced recently due to the current state of emergency on the border. In January, Doctors Without Borders had to remove its team on the Belarus-Poland border after Warsaw refused them access to the area.

Frontex is asking that the EU Court of Justice dismiss a claim brought by litigation organisation front-LEX in 2021, which sought the termination of Frontex’ operations in the Aegean Sea due to evidence of serious human rights violations. Frontex is also demanding that the legal costs be covered by the applicants, who are an unaccompanied child and a former asylum seeker who now has refugee status. In 2021, the European Parliament had expressed its concerns over Frontex’s order to recover legal fees in another case brought by two transparency activists and denounced the chilling effect of this measure on civil society.

Early January, the Portuguese and Moroccan governments signed a deal creating a framework for the recruitment, hiring, and admission of Moroccan citizens to work in Portugal. Media reports that the agreement is seen by the Portuguese government as a way to address labour shortages and at the same time avoid potential irregular arrivals and people smuggling. The Portuguese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the agreement will allow for Moroccan workers to have ‘an equal footing with Portuguese workers regarding their rights and obligations’, though further details on the eligibility criteria, procedures, and rights that workers will have are not yet available.

The Spanish Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration issued an order (instrucción) to the Immigration Offices to protect women experiencing domestic violence whose residence status is dependent on their aggressors. The instruction aims at correcting the misuse of the legislation, which on many occasions was only applied to women with no residence status at all (as opposed to also considering women with dependent status who might lose that status if they complained about domestic violence). The order, published in November 2021, introduces fixed criteria to ensure that women are able to report domestic violence without fearing deportation and are granted access to a new residence permit.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy has released a toolkit to assist relevant stakeholders in designing and implementing integration policies targeted at people with a migration background, including when undocumented, through the use of EU funds in the 2021–2027 programming period. It describes the scope of support and the legal requirements of the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

Germany’s new coalition government (consisting of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals) agreed to expand access to and scope of residence permits for undocumented people. In particular, the coalition agreement foresees that people who live in Germany under a temporary suspension of their deportation (Duldung-status) would now be able to work. Those who have Duldung-status for training purposes would also be able to get a regular residence permit. The agreement foresees that people who have been living under Duldung-status for at least five years on 1 January 2022 would be able to have access to a one-year residence permit so they can apply for other, longer-term residence permits. The coalition partners have also agreed to not build any new detention centers or detain children, but nothing is said as to the widespread use of detention pending deportation. An analysis by migrants’ rights organisation ProAsyl can be found here. The government agreement also foresees to abolish obligations to report undocumented migrants seeking health care to the social welfare office, which we covered in our December 2020 newsletter.

 

The Irish government has announced that the new regularisation scheme will open on 31 January 2022 and will run for six months until 31 July 2022. The scheme is expected to benefit about 20,000 people who have been living in the country without a permit for at least four years, or at least three years for those who have children. People with expired student visas as well as those with pending deportation orders will be eligible provided, they meet the above-mentioned time requirements.