Last month, Spain passed a law that facilitates access to residence and work permits for unaccompanied young adults. The reform is expected to improve the lives of thousands of unaccompanied children and young adults who recently aged out.

In particular, the reform simplifies and accelerates procedures to issue residence and work permits for unaccompanied children, as well as those who arrived as children and aged out (known in Spanish as Extutelados) and are now between 18 and 23 years old. The reform also extends the validity of such permits, and grants access to basic income support for aged out young adults. Not everyone will be able to benefit from this reform, however. In particular, this is the case for young adult migrants who were never recognized as unaccompanied children because of lengthy and biased age assessment procedures.

The reform has been welcomed by Spanish civil society, which has long advocated for such a change. Although the measure has its limits, it is an example of how simple procedures and realistic regularisation criteria can protect children and young people from harm, and ease their transition into adulthood. Read our blog to find out what the reform entails, who can benefit, and who risks being left out.

As Belarus has been encouraging migrants to cross into the EU in response to sanctions against the Lukashenko regime, Poland passed legislation that allows for push backs of migrants at its borders and for the construction of a border wall. The law further expands the powers of border guard agents: in particular, local Border Guard Chiefs can order people entering Poland irregularly to leave the territory. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, has called for immediate access of international and national human rights actors and media to Poland’s border with Belarus

A briefing published in October by Free Movement UK examines the UK attempts to legalise pushbacks of migrants by granting immunity to border officials who turn boats back to French waters. Currently, under British law and in accordance with international law, failing to rescue a “person in distress” at sea is a criminal offence. In parallel, there is an obligation to provide dignified treatment to people on board and bring them to a safe place, regardless of nationality or status. Recent media reports exposed how the Home Office was training British border officials in pushbacks tactics.

Two Dutch lawyers are taking Frontex to the European Court of Justice for the forced return flight of a Syrian family from Greece to Turkey in 2016. Hundreds of cases of illegal pushbacks have been documented in the past years in Greece, and another case had been brought against Frontex earlier this year, but this is the first time lawyers are seeking compensation. In October, in a webinar organised by Greens MEP Tineke Strik, the lawyers said they had already filed an internal complaint in 2017, where they highlighted that the family had been treated inhumanely, that they had been deported in the absence of a return decision, and that they lacked access to the asylum procedure. Frontex has failed to prove that they followed due diligence and has blamed Greece for the forced return.

The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have launched a jointly developed guide to help states ensure border governance complies with human rights standards. The guide provides practical guidance for frontline border officials to carry out border operations in ways that respect human rights, and respond to situations of vulnerability, including when screening, interviewing, detaining and returning migrants.

Citing reports of migrant children being pushed back or detained at Europe’s borders, UNICEF Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe released a statement calling states to protect all children, regardless of their migration status. In particular, UNICEF condemns the use of pushbacks against children, as this practice is in “direct violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child” and puts children at risk.

Two young search and rescue volunteers, Sarah Mardini, a Syrian refugee, and Seán Binder, a German national, are facing trial and risking 25 years in prison for helping migrants land safely in Lesvos, Greece. Because of such humanitarian work, both volunteers have been the target of trumped up charges including human trafficking, money laundering, and being part of a ‘criminal’ organisation. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have denounced the criminalisation of human rights defenders working on migrants’ rights.

End of October, activists Paweł Wrabec and Justyna Wolniewicz-Wrabec were detained after helping two Iraqi men in the Polish town of Hajnówka, close to the Belarusian border. The activists were driving them to a safe place when the police stopped their car. The activists have been accused of aiding illegal border crossings and now face up to 8 years in prison. The men they were assisting were also detained without more information being provided on their account. This is the first time activists are being criminalised for helping migrants in the Polish-Belarus border.

In their latest report “From Sea to Prison”, the Italian association ARCI Porco Rosso and the activist network Alarm Phone have gathered nearly a thousand cases of migrants accused of migrants smuggling by Italian authorities only because they had been at the helm of the boat that brought them, and fellow migrants, to Italy, in the past decade. The report emphasises that this criminalisation, which relies also on anti-Mafia laws, contributes to deadly disasters at sea without decreasing smuggling activities. It also points out the devastating effects of the criminal prosecution on the lives of the accused, and the lack of basic rights while they are detained.

As a part of international anti-trafficking operation “Hotspot”, the Serbian police arrested and detained around a thousand undocumented migrants across different cities in Serbia, including Belgrade. The migrants were reportedly transferred to reception centres in the country. Along the so-called Balkan route, Serbia is regularly crossed by migrants who attempt to reach Western Europe in the absence of alternative and viable regular options.

A recent report on legal assistance for migrants during return proceedings from the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) finds several restrictions and shortcomings in the provision of free legal aid in pre-removal detention. Key issues include language barriers, access to information, strict deadlines and complying with strict legal requirements. The FRA calls on Member States to address such shortcomings, and to provide access to national and international detention-monitoring bodies so they can regularly assess the use and effectiveness of free legal aid for returnees.

The Greek government adopted a law that allows undocumented people to obtain a provisional social security number (PAMKA) for the COVID-19 vaccination, the receipt of the relevant certificate and for receiving COVID-19 self-tests. The law indicates that undocumented migrants will not be deported if they seek access to the vaccination process. Its implementation depends on inter-ministerial decisions that spell out the details. An inter-ministerial decision on the issuance of a temporary social security number was published in early November, with additional decisions pending on the issuance of the digital vaccination certificate and on the participation of NGOs in local and regional authorities in the vaccination of undocumented people.

In a new guide for policymakers and practitioners, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) calls on states to improve access to social protection for migrants. The guide has a specific section on migrant workers in an irregular situation and sets out to what extent undocumented migrants have rights to social protection under the international human rights framework, in particular in terms of the right to health, rights and benefits accrued through past employment, and benefits in the case of occupational injury. It provides examples of various measures taken and recommends universal social protection especially to migrant workers that often face specific barriers, in particular seasonal, domestic and undocumented workers.

The Committee responsible for migration in the European Parliament has addressed recommendations to the European Commission to reform and adopt legislation to increase avenues for people from outside the EU to migrate to work in the region, across all types of skills. The report underlines that these new avenues should ensure decent working conditions and reduce the exploitation of third-country workers, in particular by improving possibilities to change employer. The MEPs also support the Commission’s proposal to reduce the number of years required to access long-term resident status in the EU and improve intra-EU mobility for settled migrant workers and their families. The Commission is expected to publish some measures on labour migration, the so-called ‘Talent and Skills Package’, in early 2022.

The German Rosa Luxemburg and Heinrich Böll Foundations have launched Moving Cities, a website which maps local policies to welcome migrants and refugees across Europe. Moving Cities provides in-depth research about such city-level policies and aims to facilitate mutual learning between municipalities all over Europe. It includes some policies specifically related to undocumented people and people with precarious residence status. The end goal is to amplify the voices of cities and city networks as political actors in the European debate on migration, too often anchored in fear and rejection of migrants.