News Highlights: human trafficking book, EU-Eritrea cooperation, aid for famine

In this week’s news highlights we will share with you: the book launch of Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era: The Ongoing Tragedy of Trade in Refugees from Eritrea and the latest political events that give an overview of Europe’s tendencies in migration politics. In the Horn of Africa, famine is increasing but international response is reluctant. Also included: increasing human rights abuses in South Sudan, cross-border attacks between Ethiopia and South Sudan and an update on Ethiopia’s state of emergency.

European Court of Justice decision: no humanitarian visas – a loss for refugees, a win for traffickers

Yesterday, 07 March 2017, the European Court of Justice ruled its decision on humanitarian visas in the European Union and came to the conclusion that member states cannot be obliged to admit asylum seekers on humanitarian grounds, even if they are at risk of torture or inhuman treatment. The court ruled on a on the case of a Syrian family of five from Aleppo. The family initially applied for a visa to Belgium at the Belgian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon but the Belgian Immigration Office refused the visa because it was clear that the family intended to overstay it.

Upcoming: side event at the UNHRC – follow up process on the COI report on Eritrea

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Next week, on the 13 March 2017, the UN Human Rights Council is holding a side event on the topic The Post-COI Follow-Up Process. The event, which is co-organised by EEPA, will take place at the Palais des Nations, Room XXVII at 10:00 to 11:30 and will reflect on the human rights situation Eritrea and the accountability process since the publication of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea (COI) report in July 2016.