Nikolaj Nielsen
Norwegian activist Tommy Olsen says he is facing enormous personal and financial costs over Greek allegations that he belongs to a criminal organisation, in a trial that starts on Tuesday in Rhodes.
Syria’s regime collapsed in December 2024, over 22 months ago. The country was the largest source of irregular arrivals in 2023. Today, the EU disingenuously attributes its migration policies for the drop of arrivals.
The EU’s ‘return regulation’ makes your home fair game for police — and Belgium is racing to use itThe EU’s return regulation is being formally adopted on Thursday, setting a new precedent for police raids. The Belgians are pressing ahead with their own national version, putting civil liberties of everyone at risk.
Former French MEP and culture minister Rachida Dati, who is now a Paris mayor, threatened to sue EUobserver in 2014 emails about corruption allegations, which are now coming home to roost in high-profile French trails.
Political pressure for allowing EU asylum opt-outs continues to increase, as commission drafts vague new emergency rules in the wake of this summer’s Ceuta episode.
The EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric cars in 2024. Today, Beijing’s hybrid cars are making record sales in Europe amid fresh German calls to extend the tariffs.
Deporting humans becomes big business, as Brussels and Washington race to pay African countries to take themThe Americans have secured some 35 deals to deport people, often with no strings attached. The multi-million US dollar business appears to have turned into a race with the Europeans, who are hoping to secure their first deal with the Rwandans.
Poland is taking credit for a new so-called European emergency response framework, announced last week by the European Commission president. Details are scant but Poland is seeking to loosen UN rules on pushbacks, citing article 33(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
The Greeks suspended asylum in 2020. They did it again last year. The EU commission endorsed both. Greece last month asked for new EU rules to suspend asylum and the commission appears to have complied.
The EU’s 15 year self-declared war against migrant smugglers is a deadly jokeMagnus Brunner, the EU migration commissioner, makes an impassioned plea to tackle migrant smugglers. The EU has been saying the same thing for the past 15 years, yet profits remain high and people continue to die.
Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce new migrant-busting proposals on Wednesday during her State of the Union speech in Strasbourg. Speculation is rising on what they could be, given the bloc has spent 10 years debating asylum reforms which only kicked into force three months ago.
An Austrian national who helped document rights violations at the Greek Turkey border in 2020 is suing the EU’s data protection watchdog over allegations it failed to protect her rights after Europol collected her personal information amid a Greek criminal case, for which she was later exonerated.
An investigation by Border Forensics reveals a pattern of state-sanctioned violence and migrant enmity leading up to the deaths of people who could have been otherwise saved.
Saint-Gilles is a vibrant neighbourhood in Brussels. But a spate of recent drug-gang related bombings and shootings has galvanised local community leaders, who feel largely abandoned by the state and political infighting.
A rights expert on Roma in Germany says the AfD win is a clear sign that anti-Roma hatred has been normalised and legitimised.
Denmark to host talks to push failed deportation centres abroad – againThe plan comes amid opposition from both Spain and France, noting similar previous efforts have failed to deliver results – at enormous financial and human expense.
Ambassador Bill White had previously threatened to suspend all US relations with Ghent university and accused the institution of “scapegoating mob behavior” after its rector suspended Nathan Cofnas for his role in events that led to the death of Cambridge academic Jason Arday.
People desecrating churches and setting others on fire are among the bogus videos that have been circulated on social media platforms such as Elon Musk’s X in the wake of the mass crossing of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
Madrid issues fresh threats against Morocco, as Rabat seeks “sovereignty” talks over the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, reminiscent of its equally bogus claims over the Western Sahara.
Border controls have now become political weapons wielded against fellow EU member states. And EU policies designed to ease and lift those controls appear increasingly powerless.