Non-profit newsroom Lighthouse Reports has uncovered the existence of clandestine detention places for migrants in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Hungary. People detained in these “black sites” are prevented from seeking asylum and are then deported. The journalistic investigation gathered visual evidence of the existence of these sites and proved that they are part of a system that draws money from EU funds. Frontex-branded cars were also found close to a “black site” in Bulgaria. 

In its latest report, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) has gathered testimonies from over 700 people trying to reach Europe in 2021 and 2022 who testified of group and violent pushbacks that affected more than 16,000 other people. According to the report, border guards in 13 countries used “deterrence tactics" such as prolonged beatings, shaving of heads, forced undressing, sexual assaults and dog attacks. BVMN also denounces growing attempts to criminalise and harass activists helping migrants. 

In a separate report, BVMN documented Germany’s political and practical support (including officers and equipment) for Croatian border authorities from 2016 to 2022, despite overwhelming evidence of systemic human rights violations by Croatia against migrants. 

Human Rights Watch and Border Forensics have released multimedia research documenting that Frontex used aerial surveillance to enable the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrant boats, rather than notifying civilian rescue organisations or merchant ships to facilitate their rescue. This happened despite widespread knowledge that migrants will face systematic and widespread abuse when forcibly returned to Libya. 

Ministers from the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, and The Netherlands met on 8 December in Brussels to discuss cooperation in stemming migration across the Channel, and in furthering a punitive approach to migrant smuggling. The discussions, which build on a previous similar agreement between France and the UK, included a working arrangement between the UK and Frontex to step up the detection and registration of migrants present irregularly, and speed up asylum and returns procedures. 

NGO JRS Belgium has published a new monitoring report on the state of immigration detention in Belgium in 2021. The report provides an overview of the immigration detention centres in the country, the number of people detained and deported, including in the family detention centres, which JRS has been monitoring since their creation in 2008. The report documents immigration detention in Belgium during the COVID-19 pandemic, and refutes the authorities’ argument that the system increases deportations, also through comparison of return decisions issued and actual deportations. You can read more, in English, in this blog. 

A new report by the European Migration Network (an EU network composed of National Contact Points appointed by national governments) highlights widespread failures in supporting unaccompanied minors who transition to adulthood, in most EU countries. The report finds that Member States and Norway experience similar difficulties in supporting the transition of unaccompanied children to adulthood, in particular as it concerns the need to improve accommodation for those who turn 18 and to level up services and support available to those who have just transitioned into adulthood. 

A coalition of civil society and political actors, including PICUM member Anti-Slavery International, published a "model law" to strengthen the protection of workers affected by forced labour in EU legislation. This is a response to the European Commission recent proposal to introduce a regulation to ban products made from forced labour, which was welcomed as a positive step but criticised criticised for the lack of measures aimed at protecting workers. The model law recommends reinforcing access to redress and confidential access to complaint mechanisms for workers caught in forced labour, in close cooperation with the workers themselves, civil society and trade unions.