How and with what effects have three South-East European countries (Greece, Slovenia and Croatia) responded to the EU’s migration and border security acquis? The paper shows that European integration can strengthen central state actors, but can also change the constellation of actors and resources in trans-boundary policy sectors such as international migration and border security. To demonstrate these effects the paper specifies functional, political and administrative dimensions of the EU’s migration and border security ‘capacity bargain’. It also specifies the limits of an EU approach to migration and border security – and associated capacity-building – that has a strong regulatory focus on the EU’s external frontiers with less attention paid to more complex regulatory and distributive dynamics that arise once migrants are ‘in’.  

During the past year the temporary holding centre for irregular migrants in Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, has been repeatedly denounced for instances of procedural irregularities and alleged human rights violations. The degrading treatment of third-country nationals, the difficulty in gaining access to the asylum determination process and the large scale expulsions to Libya, brought Lampedusa to the attention of European and international institutions. The European Parliament, the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee all called on Italy to refrain from collective expulsions of asylum seekers and irregular migrants to Libya and to respect asylum seekers’ right to international protection. Using the material provided by the Italian authorities, European institutions and the NGOs, this study presents an overview of events and policies implemented by the Italian and Libyan Governments, the European Union and the International Organization for Migration and outlines the contentions surrounding these policies. The paper argues that the implementation of the detention and return schemes, commonly discussed in terms of the externalization of asylum, does not actually relocate the asylum procedures outside the EU’s external borders but rather deprives asylum seekers of the possibility of accessing asylum determination procedure. My analysis of migratory patterns in Libya further suggests that these policies, implemented to deter irregular migratory flows into Europe and combat smuggling in migrants, might paradoxically result in ‘illegalizing’ the movement of migrants between Libya and the neighbouring African states and in increasing the involvement of smuggling networks. The study ends by raising the issue of the political responsibility of all actors involved, whether they are Governments, supranational bodies or agencies, and putting forward policy recommendations for an effective EU framework forthe protection of asylum seekers.  

Assisted voluntary return (AVR) is a new approach to return of irregular immigrants aiming at combating unlawful migration, and thus strengthening national immigration systems. AVR lowers risks of the violation of human rights and preserves migrants’ dignity and safety. In addition, it carries fewer political and financial costs. AVR of irregular immigrants is an integral part of migration management in some European countries, including the Slovak Republic. This paper provides a general understanding of the issue of irregular migration and an analysis of policies and practices in assisted voluntary return of irregular migrants in the Slovak Republic. The paper concludes with a discussion of the major issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve sustainable and effective AVR management. 

This article proposes that there is added value in moving beyond isolated studies of return-related migration policies in order to consider both deportations and so-called assisted voluntary returns under the common heading of ‘state-induced returns’. Based on official documents and interviews with staff members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration, it argues that international actors working in the field of migrant return engage in a type of tasksharing that goes beyond functional complementariness. With regard to the return of rejected asylum seekers, for instance, they legitimise each other’s engagement as well as the overarching return objectives of governments, and are, therefore, involved in normbuilding regarding the acceptability of state-induced returns. In addition to setting certain minimum standards regarding states’ treatment of their immigrant population, international actors assist states in upholding control over them. Rather than merely replacing state-led regulation, international actors thus support domestic governments in reaching their migration control objectives, and thereby contribute to a stabilisation of state sovereignty in the governance of migration. 

This EMN Country Factsheet provides a factual overview of the main policy developments in migration and international protection in Cyprus during 2012, including latest statistics. It has been prepared in conjunction with the European Commission’s 4th Annual Report on Migration and Asylum (2012). This EMN Country Factsheet provides a factual overview of the main policy developments in migration and international protection in Cyprus during 2012, including latest statistics. It has been prepared in conjunction with the European Commission’s 4th Annual Report on Migration and Asylum (2012).

The expulsion of irregular migrants has become a political priority in many (northern) EU member states. In countries such as Germany and the Netherlands this has resulted in a rather puzzling situation in which the capacity for the administrative detention of irregular migrants is increasing, while the number of effective expulsions seems to be decreasing. In this article two theoretical perspectives are used to analyse these developments: a perspective emanating from the criminological framework of the ‘new penology’ and one resulting from the ‘migration control literature’. These perspectives combined offer explanations for this paradoxical situation – by highlighting the importanc of identification and the frustration thereof by irregular migrants and countries of origin – and for the apparent irrationality of the use of, sometimes very lengthy, administrative detention of irregular migrants.