Informal and Illegal Detention in Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany
LOCKED UP AND EXCLUDED Informal and illegal detention in Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany LOCKED UP AND EXCLUDED 1 INFORMAL AND ILLEGAL DETENTION IN SPAIN, GREECE, ITALY AND GERMANY INTRODUCTION This report provides an overview of the use of administrative detention of non- nationals in four members-states of the European Union (EU). While three of those (Italy, Spain, Greece) are points of first arrival for people trying to reach Europe, the fourth one (Germany) is considered a destination country, which people reach by crossing borders internal to the Schengen Area. The way each of these four countries governs migration, including through the use of administrative detention, depends on their position within what has been called the EU border regime – namely the set of rules, laws, structures, agencies and practices that have been developed by EU insti- tutions over the last 30 years to govern migration. As has long been argued by Migreurop, this border regime is premised on an unequal sharing of control practices and duties within and outside the EU territory. On the one hand, members-states closer to the external borders of the Union have been endowed with the role of buffer zones against migrants on behalf of core western and northern EU members-states (especially through the Dublin Convention that states that the country responsible for assessing an asylum claim in the EU is the first country of Migreurop is a network of associations, activists and researchers, with a presence in entry, thereby forcing members-states sharing a border with the Schengen Area to around twenty countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
[Show full text]