A coalition of civil society organisations, led by Access Now, European Digital Rights, the Refugee Law Lab at York University, and PICUM, launched a public campaign to ensure the draft EU AI Act protects people with migration experience and/or irregular status.

The current text, that would regulate artificial intelligence in Europe, fails to protect people from AI harmful uses in the migration field, and exonerates the EU’s large-scale migration databases from important safeguards. The campaign’s website is available on www.protectnotsurveil.eu.

On 9 February, EU leaders gathered in a special European Council summit agreed to escalate punitive approaches to migration through more border surveillance and swifter deportations. The European Council further asked the European Commission to step up the use of visa agreements to pressure third countries into accepting swifter and more deportations of their citizens, and develop unified safe third countries’ lists to ensure more people are deported. The European Commission welcomed these asks in a speech delivered by its President.

Frontex’ deputy director announced that the agency will spend around € 100 million in 2023 to deport migrants in an irregular situation, in an attempt to increase the number of deportations. The agency also intends to launch anti-smuggling operations at European ports, including Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In 2021, Frontex deported around 18,300 people and, according to its deputy director, the figures increased in 2022.

According to a recent investigation by Lighthouse Reports, asylum seekers, including children, have been chained and locked up below deck in unofficial jails on commercial ships – in the form of metal boxes and dark rooms – to facilitate pushbacks from Italy to Greece. Data provided by the Greek authorities shows that hundreds have been affected in the last two years, with 157 people returned from Italy to Greece in 2021, and 74 in 2022 – although experts believe that not all cases are documented.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly proposing to remove the right of asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to appeal against their deportation. The Home Office proposed two options to the prime minister for automatically preventing those who arrive in the UK from claiming asylum. One option would withdraw the right to appeal, while the other would only allow appeals after deportation. The Home Office also announced that legislation is being drafted to prevent asylum seekers using the Human Rights Act to avoid deportation.

A Rome court recently ruled that the Italian coast guard and navy were guilty of manslaughter and negligence resulting in failure to rescue, and were thus ruled responsible for the death of 268 migrants on the shipwreck that took place off Lampedusa in 2013. The two people accused, Captain Leopoldo Manna and Frigate Captain Luca Licciardi, were not convicted because the case was time-barred, as the trial was brought beyond the limitations period.

PICUM released a new toolkit on the participation of young activists with lived experience of (irregular) migration, and how established civil society organisations can support their activism, and enrich their own advocacy. The toolkit distils experiences and perspectives shared during an exchange between organisations and young advocates with lived experience, organised by PICUM.

Greek authorities have levied unfounded charges against two migrants' rights activists, Panayote Dimitras and Tommy Olsen, in connection with their peaceful activism. The charges allege that Dimitras and Olsen aided the entry and stay of third-country nationals in Greece by sending information to the authorities about the details and whereabouts of newly arrived migrants, so that they could claim asylum in Greece.

The European Court of Human Rights ordered Malta to release seven children held in a detention centre in Ħal Far. The children, who were rescued at sea with other 47 people and detained upon disembarkation, were given a joint hearing with the rest of the group despite declaring themselves as children, and were issued a collective detention decision. After a month of inaction by the authorities, lawyers from the Aditus Foundation filed a request for interim measures before the European Court of Human Rights, which was upheld by the Court on the same day.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the detention of R.M. and their three children in Poland for seven months, pending their deportation to Russia, was unlawful. The court found that the authorities did not consider whether the detention of the children for this period was a solution of last resort or that they have taken the necessary steps to limit the duration of their confinement to the strict minimum. Additionally, the Court found that the applicants did not have a fair opportunity to challenge the legality of the measure in court as the information communicated to them did not explain the legal basis for their detention.

An appeals court in The Hague, Netherlands, prohibited the country’s border police from using racial profiling to carry out identity checks at borders. The court overturned a 2021 ruling that said ethnicity could be one of the criteria for singling out passengers, but not the only one. This recent ruling was welcomed by national human rights organisations as a step forward in the fight against discrimination.

In a new study released this February on the impact of the 2018 Geneva regularisation on people’s lives, the University of Geneva found that the regularisation has a positive impact on the mental and physical health of migrants, by reducing stress factors and improving living conditions. However, the work situation remains challenging for those who have been regularised, with low hourly wages and difficulties in finding employment that matches their skills. The study also finds that regularisation allows children to develop their potential in terms of education and training.

On 22 February, activists of the Spanish RegularizaciónYa platform presented a citizens’ initiative for a country-wide regularisation in the federal parliament. Since 2021, RegularizaciónYa has been campaigning to regularise hundreds of thousands of people living undocumented in the country. After gathering more than 700.000 signatures - the fifth most successful of this kind in the country - the Spanish Congress admitted the proposal, which will be debated in the coming weeks.

In a recent decree, the Italian government increased work permit quotas for 2023 to 82,705, up from 69,700 in 2022. Half of the 2023 work permits (44,000) are for seasonal work, while some 31,000 spots are reserved for non-seasonal work in sectors including construction, tourism, and telecommunications. Non-seasonal work permits are subject to a “labour market test”, whereby the employer must prove that no regularly residing workers were available for the job. Domestic work is not included among the work permit quotas, despite being one of the largest sectors for non-EU workers.

The European Sex Workers’ Alliance addressed an open letter to MEPs to call for the decriminalisation of sex work, and ensure people in sex work are empowered and protected instead. The action comes as the European Parliament is debating new legislation on violence against women, which some groups are trying to introduce provisions that would criminalise sex work and the purchase of sexual services. The letter was co-signed by over 170 civil society organisations, including PICUM.