November, 6th 2023 – The European Commission, Parliament and Council are meeting to discuss the Screening Regulation of the European New Pact on Migration and Asylum.

This briefing, written along with the Border Violence Monitoring Network, aims to provide evidence from research conducted in Greece and Italy that can be used to support the Parliament’s mandate for Articles 4, 6, 6a 8 and 13 of the Screening Regulation. Aspects of the Regulation have been piloted in Italy’s hotspots, the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) in Samos, and in mainland Greece’s Reception and Identification Centres (RICs). In each case, screening mechanisms have subjected people to arbitrary detention in inadequate conditions for extended periods of time which, compounded by a chronic lack of access to information and legal support, deprives them of the possibility to challenge violations of their fundamental rights. Case law at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) upholds that such mechanisms are in violation of the rights to asylum, liberty, effective remedy and freedom from torture.

Read the briefing