Migration

Systematic use of pre-trial detention, extremely brief hearings, and inadequate interpretation services are among the key findings of this research by the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) and Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Thessaloniki Office. Based on the monitoring of 123 criminal trials in 2025, the report documents serious and recurring fair-trial concerns in the prosecution of people on the move charged with “illegal transport of third-country nationals” in Greece.

In the Aegean, contested borders, conflicting statistics, and uneven reporting obscure the human reality of maritime crossings. This Unified Monitoring Toolkit introduces a transparent, standardized method for documenting incidents, enabling researchers, advocates, and policymakers to work with rigorous, comparable data that can be transferred to other EU border regions today.

This report uses the term “externalisation” to refer to cooperation between the EU or its member states with non-EU states (“third countries”), which aims to shift responsibility for migration and asylum governance. This shifting of responsibility has become a central feature of the European Union’s migration, asylum, and border governance. The paper examines externalisation through a legal lens, offering an analysis of potential violations of migrants’ human rights and the corresponding responsibility.

This publication is a practical guide created by the Border Violence Monitoring Network and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Thessaloniki Office, in order to support human rights defenders by showing them mechanisms and avenues for help and self-defence in cases of criminalisation – something that is unfortunately becoming increasingly common in Europe and especially in areas receiving refugees and migrants. After English, Greek and BHS (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian), it is now also published in Italian by our Paris Office, including a section specifically on the reality in Italy.

This legal opinion written by the non-profit organization front-LEX elaborates on the accountability of Frontex under EU law for ongoing violations of the fundamental rights of asylum seekers, committed in relation to its activities in Greek waters.

Our publication "In defence of defenders", authored by Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN),  is a practical guide that aims to support human rights defenders and provide practical solutions to the increasing targeting of them. After English and Greek, this useful toolkit is now also available in BCS (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian), covering a large part of the Western Balkans and people active in the region.

In this study, a unique monitoring framework combining quantitative and qualitative media content analysis methods has been designed and implemented, in order to illustrate the main representation trends in the reporting of migration-related topics by various media organizations in Turkey.

For at least three decades, the EU and its Member States have engaged in a process of “externalisation” – a policy agenda by which the EU seeks to prevent migrants and refugees setting foot on EU territory by externalising (that is, outsourcing) border controls to non-EU states. The EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, published in September 2020, proposed a raft of measures seeking to step up operational cooperation and collaboration in order to further this agenda.

Immigration policy has become Turkey’s most heated topic of debate. While the country has accepted a massive influx of refugees in the last decade, the issue has become more salient in the last two years due to the electorate’s increasing anti-immigrant sentiment. No picture regarding immigration would be complete without mentioning the rise of anti-immigrant political parties.

This report provides a comprehensive review of Turkish asylum laws and policies, in particular those concerning temporary protection, international protection, refugee status determination, deportation and detention.

Migration as well as supporting people in flight is increasingly treated as a criminal act in Europe. This toolkit, created by Border Violence Monitoring Network and Heinrich Böll Stiftung Thessaloniki, seeks to support affected Human Rights Defenders by showing them mechanisms and avenues for help and self-defence in cases of criminalisation at various levels.

This study aims to observe the range of different representations of people on the move in the media coverage in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia between 2015 and 2021.

This study examines the coverage of migration and asylum seeking in eight Greek media outlets (Efsyn, Ta Nea, I Kathimerini, Proto Thema, Eleftheros Typos, Makeleio, i-efimerida and zougla) between September and November 2021 using a quantitative content analysis.