News Highlights: Shelling and troop build-up in Tigray, Border checks in Schengen area, 97 people drown in Mediterranean

ttempts to build bridges with pro-democracy movement; 650.000 Sudanese children at risk of severe malnutrition; Sudanese government offers contribution to solve conflict in Ethiopia; Authorities take newspaper and bar association to court; Kenya workers suffer abuses and violation of rights;  UNSC renews mandate for inspection of vessels along Libyan coast; Greek Migration minister accuses EU of using external border states as “refugee parking lots”;  Refugee and migrant population down by 50% in Greece since last year; ECJ rules against Hungarian asylum law; Czech and Austrian border guards to renew checks on border with Slovakia; Pope Francis calls for support to migrants as Italy elects far right wing government; What do the Italian elections imply for EU migration policy?; and 97 asylum seekers dead after Lebanese boat capsizes.

Roadmap on asylum and migration and rotating Council presidencies: what implications for EU asylum and migration law?

The signature of the Joint Roadmap on Asylum and Migration by the European Parliament and Council heralds a busy legislative period that could have significant and lasting impact, not only on legislation, but on the direction European Asylum and migration law takes in the future. The proposed large overhaul of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) seems unlikely to pass in time and the Czech Council presidency is attempting to pass smaller, more consensual pieces of legislation; but according to critics also more problematic in their implications such as the instrumentalization regulation.This regulation, according to some, would make permanently accessible emergency opt out mechanisms, weakening EU asylum law and the international asylum system as a whole