We are a non-profit project that aims to fill the data gaps relating to refugees and displaced people in Europe.
Refugee Rights Europe’s preliminary reaction to the European Commission’s Migration and Asylum Pact For years, women, men and children in displacement have suffered human rights violations across Europe: left to drown at sea, beaten, violently and illegally pushed back at EU borders, contained without dignity at the EU’s edges, returned to danger under cynical deals … Continue reading New Pact on Migration: An exacerbation of past failures in shiny new packaging
By Barbara Joannon, Head of Programme and Advocacy The EU Commission’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum offers an opportunity. A chance to move away from a security driven approach to migration and asylum within the EU, to one based on human dignity, the rule of law and human rights. But the New Pact comes … Continue reading What we want to see in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The past weeks have seen a sharp increase in media coverage of small boat crossings by desperate individuals trying to reach the UK from northern France. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently branded these Channel crossings “a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do”. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti Patel says she … Continue reading The UK Channel crossings – what’s happening?
By Loraine Masiya Mponela Loraine Masiya Mponela, the chairperson of Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG), reflects on the unique challenges being faced by asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in the UK during the pandemic. Asylum seekers are people whose request for protection is yet to be processed. International law provides that anyone has … Continue reading Asylum Seekers Face Isolation and Destitution amid Covid-19
We are delighted to have supported the issuing of an urgent communication to seven UN Special Rapporteurs concerning the treatment of persons without access to adequate housing during the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The Committee for Refugee Relief, alongside Refugee Rights Europe and 91 organisations, have made a submission to 7 UN Special Rapporteurs to … Continue reading Urgent communication to seven UN Special Rapporteurs regarding France’s COVID-19 response
By Luke Buckler The recently reelected mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart has proposed the state repurpose a disused military base near Calais as a place to confine the displaced people in the region. This plan might be presented as a helpful measure to support people who otherwise don’t have shelter, or a way for them … Continue reading Coronavirus as a pretext for detention? On the latest disconcerting developments in Calais
By Stephanie Pope, Senior Advocacy and Policy Officer In the wake of the European Parliament elections, Refugee Rights Europe is launching its next phase of EU-level policy and advocacy work. In 2019 and 2020, we will be working with policy-makers and advocacy partners in Brussels to achieve positive reform. Informed by data gathered from over … Continue reading Towards a Rights-Based Reform of the Common European Asylum System
By Aileen Voit The recent report by Refugee Rights Europe, researched in collaboration with MEENA Centre for Women and Children and the Baobab Women’s Project in Birmingham, raises considerable concern about the living standards for asylum-seeking women in the UK. In the United Kingdom, asylum seekers are entitled to be provided with accommodation and small … Continue reading The experiences of women in asylum accommodation: unsanitary and unsafe
“Unaccountable, arbitrary, indefinite detention is a human rights abuse and a cruel anomaly in our system. I urge MPs on all sides to use their strength to end it”[i] Harriet Harman MP Immigration detention is not a legal term. It refers instead to policy and practice,[ii] and occurs when someone is deprived of their liberty or … Continue reading “Slow, unfair and expensive to run. . .” The crisis of immigration detention within the UK
By Helena Eynon, RRE volunteer researcher. “The definition of home for these young people is not where they came from but where they can find a new life in safety. But many struggle to find this in the UK.” Samer Mustafa, RRE Young refugees and asylum seekers in the UK often face unique and complex … Continue reading The end of the journey? Young asylum seekers and the struggle for stability in the UK