On 9 June, the EU Council struck a deal on several proposals of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum that severely curtails the rights of people arriving at the EU borders. The Council’s position foresees that anyone coming to the EU after being rescued at sea, or while crossing a border to apply for asylum would be held in dedicated facilities at the borders, in so-called border procedures, while their situation is being assessed.

The Council’s position mandates member states to have a minimum “adequate capacity” to hold people in border procedures, based on the overall EU holding capacity and the number of entries in each country. This would likely lead to new detention facilities being built at the EU's external borders.

Border procedures - which are very likely to entail deprivation of liberty - would also apply to children below 12 years old (with families), contrary to the Commission's initial proposal. The only exception is for unaccompanied children, unless national security is invoked.

People who are denied asylum would be automatically issued a return decision and have basically no possibility to access other existing national permits.

The European Commission, Council and Parliament are expected to negotiate the final text of the various proposals in the coming months.

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On June 14, a fishing boat believed to carry more than 750 people, including nearly 100 children, wrecked near the Greek coast, becoming one of the deadliest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea. At least 82 people are known to have died, and some 500 are believed to be missing. Greek authorities have faced criticism for how the disaster was handled: they seem to have ignored repeated alerts of the NGO Alarm Phone and failed to provide sufficient rescue capacity.

This tragic event follows a similar disaster that happened in February, when a boat carrying migrants capsized near Cutro, Italy, killing at least 94 people. Investigative journalists have revealed that Italian authorities failed to assist the people in distress.

The EU Data Protection Supervisor is investigating Frontex for potential breaches of data protection rules and its own guidelines, linked to the sharing of migrant testimonies with Europol. The testimonies, collected by Frontex agents to understand asylum seekers' outside assistance, contain identifiable personal data and are shared with Europol to crack down on migrant smuggling. The data exchange between Frontex and Europol, called Pedra, has faced criticism for potentially incriminating innocent individuals.

Lithuania's Constitutional Court struck down as unconstitutional a 2021 law allowing authorities to keep all undocumented migrants in detention for up to six months in cases of significant arrivals and curtailing their right to appeal. The Court found that restrictions to the individual assessment and the right to appeal are unconstitutional but did not rule against the detention provisions themselves.

The EU Council approved the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention on violence against women. This vote is a step forward in combating violence against women and girls regardless of migration status, as it includes measures for the protection of victims and the provision of support and addresses the gender-based violence dimension in matters of asylum and migration. However, gaps remain as the EU’s accession is limited to matters falling under the EU's exclusive competences. The Convention will enter into force for the EU on 1 October 2023.

EU co-legislators have recently adopted their positions on the European Commission’s proposal for a directive to prevent and fight violence against women and domestic violence. In contrast to the Council’s position, the European Parliament committees on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted a draft report that would strengthen rights of undocumented victims, including by supporting bans for law enforcement to share personal data with immigration authorities when an undocumented victim reports abuse. Negotiations between the co-legislators on the final text of the legislation are expected to start mid-July.

The European Commission asked Member States to increase their budget contributions by about 15 billion € for migration management, including to implement proposals under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. The new resources would support external migration objectives - especially returns -, cooperation with countries of origin and transit, and, to a lesser extent, internal migration priorities. Read more on ECRE’s website. 

The President of the European Commission announced that the EU is ready to provide up to €150 million in immediate budget support and consider up to €900 million in macro-financial assistance to Tunisia, once a deal is found with Tunis to curb migration to the EU. The announcement was made after the European Commission President met with Tunisian President Kais Saied, along with the Dutch and Italian Prime Ministers.

The Dutch government announced that as of 4 September 2023, third country nationals who had a temporary residence permit in Ukraine will no longer have protection under the Temporary Protection Directive. This decision will affect some 4,500 people who had a temporary residence permit in Ukraine and left after the start of the war. The government recommends those concerned to either apply for asylum or voluntarily return to their country of nationality, arguing the need to not further increase pressure on the Dutch asylum system.

In a new report, PICUM explores the costs of obtaining and keeping residence permits in 11 European countries. We find that permit application and renewal fees as well as additional related costs may price people out of permits they would otherwise qualify for. Besides the costs, the report gives insight into the relevant global and EU framework and the impact of fees and payment methods on people’s wellbeing, family life, household finances and level of trust in government. We call on governments to reduce these fees, eliminate hidden costs and waiver fees altogether for people in vulnerable situations.

In the first European mapping carried out in 24 EU Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway, the European Trade Union Institute found that short-term non-EU workers are often excluded from social security coverage or are not covered for certain risks. Although employers are supposed to pay social security and health care contributions as they do for regularly hired local workers, this general rule is subject to various exceptions and restrictions.

On 27 June, the European Parliament’s Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality adopted a draft report that criminalises the purchase of sex work. The report was adopted with only 16 votes in favour (10 against, 3 abstentions). According to the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance, it was written without consulting the sex workers’ community, and disregards and misinterprets existing research. It is expected to be voted in plenary in September 2023.