EPIM Policy Update February 2017

EPIM Policy Updates are developed as a resource for organisations interested in European policy developments in the area of migration and integration. The European Policy Centre (EPC), a Brussels-based think tank, has been commissioned to produce these Policy Updates, which are released five times a year.

EPIM Policy Updates address topics relevant to EPIM’s Thematic Funds: Immigration Detention; Reforming the Common European Asylum System; Children and Youth on the Move; Mobile EU Citizens’ Access to Rights; and Building Inclusive European Societies.

This edition’s special focus is dedicated to the plans by EU leaders to close the central Mediterranean route. Since the EU-Turkey Statement, the central Mediterranean route has become the main entry point for maritime arrivals to the EU. In 2016, approximately 181,000 migrants left Libya and travelled to Italy. According to the Maltese Presidency of the European Council, the flow of migrants through the central Mediterranean needs to be stopped at the source. However, it remains to be determined which approach will be taken under future policies and whether the EU-Turkey Statement will be replicated in Libya.

Key highlights of this Policy Update include:

• The EU Commission’s recommendation to resume Dublin transfers to Greece;
• An EU Commission proposal to revise social benefits for mobile EU citizens;
• Developments in negotiations over CEAS reform proposals;
• ECJ case law on the exclusion from refugee status;
• A closer look at the vulnerability assessment in the framework of the asylum procedure in France from Forum Réfugiés-Cosi;
• UNHCR Statistics on arrivals;
• UNICEF figures on unaccompanied and separated children who arrived in Italy in 2016.