The European Commission has proposed a new Schengen Borders Code which would turn the Schengen area into a tech-controlled space with more ethnic/racial profiling, and where people, including children, could be quickly transferred between member states without any safeguards.

The proposed revisions to the Schengen Borders Code set a new procedure to “transfer people apprehended at the internal borders” where there are indications that they crossed the internal border irregularly. The undocumented person, children included, would be transferred back within 24 hours - during which they can be detained without any safeguards. Since internal border controls are prohibited in the Schengen area, border police will likely decide who to check based on racial, ethnic, national, or religious characteristics - which is against international and EU law.

In addition, the new code would allow member states to temporarily introduce border controls at all or specific parts of its internal border in cases of “serious threat”, which now would include “large scale unauthorised movements of third country nationals". Member states would also be able to limit the number of entries and the opening hours of crossing points, and intensify border surveillance including through drones, motion sensors and border patrols, in cases of “instrumentalisation of migrants”, which is defined as “a situation where a third country instigates irregular migratory flows into the Union by actively encouraging or facilitating the movement of third country nationals to the external borders”. Read our preliminary analysis here.

A joint media investigation between Lighthouse Reports, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and Médiapart has exposed the Greek coast guard’s involvement in pushing back migrants at sea and actively throwing them overboard off the coast of Turkey, leading some to drown. The investigation started from the discovery of the dead bodies of two asylum seekers that washed up on the Turkish coast. According to verified testimonies, the two had been detained in Samos and were later made to board a speedboat by the Greek coast guard, and then thrown overboard off the coast of Turkey. Media had already documented the practice of detaining newly-arrived asylum-seekers on the Aegean islands and forcing them onto life rafts with no engines, letting them drift towards Turkey.

An Iraqi migrant woman filed a complaint against Greece seeking justice against multiple pushbacks and police violence she suffered at the borders and in detention. The woman had brought digital evidence that also allowed investigation group Forensic Architecture (FA) to document systematic push-backs and violence towards migrants by the Greek authorities. According to the complaint, which was filed with the support of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, HumanRights360 and FA, she was tortured, detained, and pushed back six times by Greek police officers during 2020.

Since the October 2021 reform of the national immigration law, more than 4.500 young people have applied for residence and work permits in Spain. Spain’s reform aims to both prevent unaccompanied children becoming undocumented when they turn 18, and provide a pathway to regular stay for those who already have. The government estimates that approximately 15,000 children and young people will benefit from the reform.

A judge in Ceuta, Spain, has ordered the Spanish government to bring back to Spain 20 unaccompanied children who were deported in the summer of 2021 to Morocco. The judge recognised that the authorities had violated the children’s rights to physical integrity and the prohibition to subject them to inhumane treatment as recognised in the Spanish Constitution, since "there is no evidence that anyone is going to take care of them once they are repatriated to their country of origin". The government has 15 days to appeal the decision.

The Belgian federal ombudsman has called for a specific residence permit for the parents of refugee children to ensure they remain documented, together and well taken care of. Since April 2019, the Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA/CGVS) no longer automatically issues a residence permit to the parents of children who are recognised as refugees because of child-specific forms of persecution (including under-age recruitment, child trafficking and female genital mutilation) that don’t apply to parents. According to the CGRA/CGVS, because the parents do not fear persecution as understood by the Refugee Convention, they should apply for regularization on humanitarian grounds. This process presents various obstacles, including the need for identity documents, proof of filiation and the payment of a 366€ fee. During the application process, the parents remain undocumented, cannot work, have no income and have limited access to services.

According to media reports, Greek authorities have been tightening control over people working in migrants’ camps on Lesvos. For instance, a volunteer working in the Mavrovouni camp was detained for five hours in a police station, and banned indefinitely from the camp after complaining about food quality there. Other volunteers were expelled after police caught them taking photos and videos of the camp. According to various sources, volunteers and aid workers have to sign non-disclosure agreements with the NGOs they work for and with the camp authorities that prevent them from speaking about the camps’ conditions.

The UN Migration Network launched new guidance for states and other actors, on how to ensure that bilateral labour migration agreements uphold human rights, including labour rights. Among the general principles, the guidance stresses the need to protect workers and their families in case of loss or change of employment, and to adopt clear and transparent procedures for the extension or renewal of work permits, as well as pathways to settled status and citizenship. Measures to ensure that information, labour rights, equal treatment and effective remedy are meaningfully accessible for all workers, including when undocumented, are included.

The UN Secretary General released a new report on the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which also outlines practices to promote the rights of undocumented people. In particular, the report recommends that states ensure all migrants can access health care, including when related to COVID-19, establish mechanisms to separate immigration enforcement activities from service provision, expand rights-based pathways for regular migration, including regularisation, develop clear, safe and predictable disembarkation mechanisms for rescued people, and end the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance to migrants.

The UN Network on Migration has released a report that gathers national-level promising policies and practices that are inclusive of migrants, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the report encourages states to support migrant workers to retain their jobs and work permits, receive visa extensions or social assistance, irrespective of migration status, and more generally ensure policies adopted in response to COVID-19 are inclusive of all migrants.

Leading human rights organisations, including PICUM, launched a joint manifesto calling on the EU to adopt inclusive and comprehensive legislation against gender-based violence. In particular, the manifesto stresses the need to address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, tackle drivers of violence including institutional discrimination and police violence, invest in holistic, person-centred and social support responses, and ensure safety and protection for people who wish to engage with authorities, including those who are undocumented and could risk detention and deportation if they approach police. The European Commission is expected to propose new gender-based violence legislation in March 2022.