ECRE Archives - aditus foundation

Malta’s detention regime blasted by the European Court of Human Rights!

Malta must take concrete steps to bring its detention regime in line with human rights standards. The European Court of Human Rights has said this in no unclear teams in a judgement we are celebrating as a victory for human rights in Malta!

Today, the Court delivered judgement in A.D. v. Malta. Together with JRS Malta, we had brought this case in March 2022 whilst AD was in detention and in collaboration with Advancing Child Right Strategic Litigation, ACRiSL.

The Court found a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 5 (right to liberty) and Article 13 in conjunction with Article 3 (right to an effective remedy).

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and refugees: what’s the link?

The project Rooting for Rights (R4R) brings together human rights organisations and experts from Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Portugal, as well the Greek National Commission of Human Rights (GNCHR), being lead organisations in the area of asylum within their national contexts. Our intention is to answer the question: “the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and refugees: what’s the link?”

Joint Statement: NGOs call on Member States and European Parliament: Go no Lower: Reject the Use of Legal Loopholes in EU Asylum Law Reforms

The Member States and European Parliament, the EU’s co-legislators, are moving forward with a reform of EU asylum law in the form of the Pact on Migration and Asylum which reduces protection standards and undermines human rights of asylum seekers in Europe. But not only.

Some EU Member States are seeking to revive an additional proposal on “instrumentalisation” launched in 2021, which would allow them to derogate from their obligations in cases of alleged “instrumentalisation of migrants”, thereby undermining harmonisation and the common system. For more detail, see this analysis and statement.

Comprehensive report on Malta’s asylum regime 2022: AIDA report

We are extremely happy to share with you the publication of the most comprehensive report on Malta’s asylum regime, covering 2022: the Asylum Information Database report (AIDA). This year, the report also includes a separate Annex providing detailed information on the implementation in Malta of the Temporary Protection Directive throughout 2022. The AIDA report is published by ECRE.

The report provides in-depth information on the various aspects of the asylum regime: asylum procedure, reception conditions, detention, content of international protection. It is based on months of desk research, complemented with information provided by various entities…who we sincerely thank for their cooperation.

Asylum in Europe: the situation of applicants for international protection in 2021

New publication!

The European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) released its comparative report on asylum for 2021, drawing on findings from the AIDA reports.

The reports notes that Malta is amongst the countries which implemented unlawful border practices hindering the possibility for persons in need of protection to cross European borders with records of illegal push-backs and refusal to carry out rescues at sea.

The report also notes that Malta is amongst the countries where the family reunification procedure is restricted to refugee status holders and where the procedure is particularly lengthy and complex with many administrative obstacles often hindering the right to family reunification for refugees.