Dear President Tusk,

ACTION 1: Establish a temporary mechanism for predictable disembarkation and relocation Against the backdrop of stalemate in the reform of the Dublin system, and drawing on recommendations put forward previously by the European Council for Refuges and Exiles (ECRE), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch call on European governments to establish temporary arrangements for disembarking and relocating in Europe people rescued at sea, and make the following recommendations in this regard:

Dear Minister Dan,I am writing to you to share the proposals put forward by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to address the policy crisis in the Mediterranean, following the closure of Italian ports to rescue vessels. The document Plan of Action: Twenty steps for a fair and predictable rescue system in the Mediterranean Sea proposes collective and workable solutions to save human lives and set up a fair system to share responsibility for examining and processing claims of people seeking protection disembarked in European ports.

The northwestern Bosnian towns of Bihać and Velika Kladuša, nestled at the very border with Croatia, have become a temporary refuge for some 5,500 refugees and migrants fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty. They arrived via the so-called “Balkans route”, passing through Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, and are now on what they hope will be the last leg of their long journey. Very few people will decide to stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the vast majority will try to reach the European Union (EU) by crossing into neighbouring Croatia – braving unfamiliar, and often inhospitable, terrain and unwelcoming police on its borders. While a member of the European Union, Croatia is not a Schengen area country, but is eager to demonstrate its readiness to join the border-free area in 2020 by decisively protecting the EU’s external borders from irregular migration.

European governments are complicit in the systematic,unlawful and frequently violent push backs and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

• Spokespeople available

6 March 2019 – This briefing is submitted in accordance with Rule 9(2) of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments, in advance of the 1340th (Human Rights) meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies on the execution of judgments in the Garabayev Group of cases against the Russian Federation.

Ahead of the meeting of European Home Affairs Ministers, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have today published a 20-point action plan to address the current unsustainable situation in the Mediterranean which is leaving boats stranded at sea and people illegally detained in Libya.

• Solidarity vigil TONIGHT Wednesday 20 Feb 18.00 Schuman Roundabout• Short speech from Maside Ocak Kışlakçı, longstanding member of ‘Saturday Mothers’

Reacting to the European Parliament’s condemnation of the ongoing repression and torture of a group of women’s rights defenders detained in Saudi Arabia since May 2018, the Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office Covadonga de la Campa said:

• Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights to hear case over UK Government bulk surveillance• Groups seek ruling from Grand Chamber that would put an end to bulk surveillance powers

• Amnesty International Hungary Director available for interviews at the debate