Vreemdelingenrecht.com - het weblog

"While the Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary judgment doesn’t break any new ground with respect to the Court’s reading of the law, it is probably one of the Court’s more important recent cases in light of its broader implications, political as well as legal. First of all, the Court’s analysis of the new situation in Hungary following the legislative amendments of 2015 effectively calls into question the legality of Dublin returns to that country along the lines of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (in case anyone was really still wondering if it was alright to send asylum-seekers back to Hungary). Furthermore, by analysing the conditions and asylum system of Serbia and determining the existence of a real risk of violations of Art. 3 in case of forced return there (particularly with respect to the possibility of chain refoulement), the Court actually sent a very clear message to the Serbian authorities themselves, giving local civil society a new resource to draw upon when confronting state of...

Kosovo population drain challenges Germany's refugee policies The number of Kosovars seeking asylum in the EU has drastically increased. It poses a challenge to recipient countries in the region, including Germany, and is on the agenda at Kosovo-Serbia talks in Brussels. Seven years after declaration of independence from Serbia, Kosovo is seeing a dramatic rise in the number of its citizens leaving to escape unemployment and poverty. According to the UN, 35 percent of people in Kosovo are unemployed and nearly 30 percent of the country lives in poverty. It is estimated that more than 30,000 people have left the country in the last two months, transiting illegally into EU member Hungary via Serbia. Exodus to Germany Many of those seeking more economic opportunities come to Germany. German figures released on Monday, February 9 show a significant increase in asylum applications from Kosovars - from 1,956 applications in December to 3,630 in January. The jump ...