In a joint statement, Amnesty International and 81 other civil society organisations express our concerns regarding the potential retention of Article 5 in the proposed EU Screening Regulation (one of key legislative files encompassing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum) during trilogue negotiations.
In a joint statement, Amnesty International and 17 other European networks and organisations, representing trade unions and NGOs, call on EU lawmakers not to trap migrant workers in exploitation, by ensuring a meaningful right to change employer, and to ensure full equal treatment, particularly in private rented housing.
Responding to the announcement that the Italian and Albanian Prime Ministers yesterday signed an agreement to construct two centres in Albania in which to detain people rescued at sea by Italian ships, including people seeking safety, Elisa De Pieri, Regional Researcher at Amnesty International said:
In a letter addressed to President Michel, President Von Der Leyen and High Representative Borrell, in view of ongoing discussions on the future of EU-Türkiye relations and ahead of the 14-15 December European Council, Amnesty International urges the EU leaders to put respect for human rights and support to independent civil society at the forefront of their engagement with the Turkish authorities.
In October 2023, Amnesty International submitted its contribution to a strategic inquiry launched by the European Ombudsman (Own Initiative Inquiry OI/3/2023/MHZ), focused on the role of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, in the context of search and rescue (SAR) operations. The inquiry centred, in particular, on the involvement of Frontex in the shipwreck off the coast of Pylos in June 2023.
Amnesty International, EuroMed Rights and Human Rights Watch shared a letter with President of the European Council Charles Michel and EU Heads of States and Governments ahead of the 26-27 October meeting of the European Council.
Ahead of a hearing at the General Court of the European Union, in which Frontex, the EU border agency, will be questioned over its lack of transparency in relation to its involvement in maritime interceptions and subsequent human rights abuses against refugees and migrants in Libya, Matteo de Bellis, Amnesty International’s Refugee Rights Researcher, said:
Responding to the news that EU leaders have agreed a position on how to deal with sudden increases in arrivals at Europe’s borders, as well as cases of so-called ‘instrumentalisation’ of migrants, that would allow EU members states to deviate from the bloc’s usual asylum and reception standards, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s EU office said:
Amnesty International and 26 other humanitarian, human rights, and refugee rights organisations welcome the decision of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union to extend the Temporary Protection Directive for refugees fleeing Ukraine for an additional year, until 4 March 2025.
As the representatives of so-called “Team Europe” were shaking Tunisian President Kais Saied’s hand this July, hundreds of refugees and migrants were stranded in the country’s desert border areas with Libya, after its security forces rounded them up and abandoned them there without access to food, water or shelter.
Ahead of EU Member States submitting their pledges for the EU resettlement scheme by 15 of September, we call on leaders to ambitiously expand safe pathways to international protection and better reflect Europe’s capacity to welcome.
Starkly divergent accounts from survivors and Greek authorities around the circumstances of the deadly Pylos shipwreck, underscore the urgent need for an effective, independent, and impartial investigation, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.