Category: Thomas Blogs

Does the EU violate public procurement law in its external migration policy? (2019, with Elies Steyger)

In 2014-2015, the European Union adopted three financial measures in order to cooperate with neighbouring countries in the field of migration policy: the EU Trust Fund for Africa, the EU Trust Fund for Syrian refugees, and the Facility for refugees in Turkey. These European external migration funds are subject to the ordinary public procurement rules to which both the member states and EU institutions themselves are subject. However, for the projects implemented through these financial measures, there is often no open competition. How does this relate to European public procurement law?

The full blogpost was published on EU Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy on 28 November 2019. A Spanish translation has been published here.

Solidarity with/out Borders (2019, with Eleni Karageorgiou)

Zainab Andalibe: La ligne, cartographie d’une distance (2019), detail, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakesh

It is not original to point out that the 2015 European refugee ‘crisis’ was not caused by numbers – Turkey hosted ten times as many Syrians per inhabitant as the EU, and Lebanon even 100 times more, while in addition Europe is much wealthier than these countries. It is also not original to point out that, instead of addressing the deficiencies of European asylum law, the EU has intensified its externalization policies, as evidenced by the March 2016 EU-Turkey deal and the EU Trust Fund for Africa. Thus, the dominant idea seems to be that in order to save free movement of persons in the Schengen zone, entry into Europe has been made ever more difficult. Although we do not want to quarrel with this (we can see perfectly well what this analysis is about), we do think it needs to be nuanced significantly. 

The full text of this blogpost is on the RLI Blog.

Moet KLM meewerken aan de uitzetting van afgewezen asielzoekers? (2019, met Maarten den Heijer en Jorrit Rijpma)

Een meerderheid in de Tweede Kamer wil dat het Kinderpardon wordt verruimd en dat in afwachting daarvan de betreffende kinderen niet worden uitgezet. Staatssecretaris Harbers wil de uitzetting niet opschorten en KLM voert aan dat het moet mee werken. Bestaat er zo’n verplichting voor luchtvaartmaatschappijen?

De volledige tekst werd gepubliceerd op Verblijfblog op 27 januari 2019.

High risk, high return: how Europe’s policies play into the hands of people-smugglers (2018)

The EU crackdown on human smuggling has only served to accelerate the cycle of desperate journeys, making them more perilous than ever – while enriching those who peddle dreams of a new life.

The Guardian, 20 June 2018; a German version was published in der Freitag, 26/2018.

Wijnand Nuijen: Shipwreck on a Rocky Coast (ca 1837), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Maak je grens potdicht en je krijgt juist méér migranten (2018)

Links en rechts zijn ernstig verdeeld over het migratiebeleid, dat te streng zou zijn of juist niet streng genoeg. Maar over één ding zijn ze het eens: streng beleid leidt tot minder immigratie. Drie recente studies tonen dat die overtuiging op een misvatting berust. De invoering van een restrictief migratiebeleid in 1973 kan wel eens een historische vergissing zijn geweest. Zeven ideeën om de historische vergissing te repareren.

Maak de grens potdicht en je krijgt juist méér migranten, gepubliceerd in Trouw, Letter & Geest, 21 april 2018

The EU Court of Justice refuses to address refugee exclusion (2018)

El Anatsui: Bleeding Takari II, 2007 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)

Last year the Court of Justice of the European Union issued two judgments on the Syrian refugee crisis. Both cases concerned Europe’s externalization of migration policy – i.e. the legal and practical measures taken to enforce refugee exclusion outside or at the borders of the territories of EU member states. These policies have been labeled as the politics of non-entrée by Hathaway & Gammeltoft-Hansen. In the judgments, the Court decided that it was not competent to rule on the cases because it had no jurisdiction. As I have argued more extensively in an article published open access in the Journal of Refugee Studies, the result of this is that law is not only an instrument for excluding people from European territory. The exclusion now runs through law itself. Although European fundamental human rights law is still formally neutral, the exclusion of non-Europeans is becoming a core element of European law.

The full blogpost was published on Forced Migration Forum, 19 January 2018.

A Fresh Start, or Old Wine in New Bottles? The European Commission’s Proposals for Legal Migration (2017)

Curtis Talwst Santiago: Deluge, 2014 (Jewel box, mixed media; Dr. Kenneth Montague/The Wedge Collection, Toronto)

On 26 September, the European Commission presented proposals for legal migration to the European Union. The Commission wants to resettle 50,000 refugees. A first analysis.

The full text was posted on on Border Crominologies on 29 September 2017.

A Dutch version was published in Verblijfblog, 27 September 2017