Who is responsible for health and safety of temporary workers? EU and UK perspectives

There have been several attempts to provide certain protection to temporary agency workers at the EU level by Directive 91/383/EEC in respect of health and safety and most recently by Directive 2008/104/EC in respect of other working conditions. However, the precarious employment status of temporary workers has been a stumbling block in clear understanding of who owes duties and responsibilities for health and safe of these workers. By seeking to address this issue, the paper analyses the existing legal provisions relating to health and safety of temporary agency workers at the EU and UK levels in the context of a more general problem associated with the employment status of such workers, and suggests a number of alternatives to the existing legal regime which could potentially clarify the situation

Used during the Balkan crises, the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive may now be a solution to Europe’s refugee emergency

Europe’s attempts to deal with the influx of people attempting to cross its southern borders was one of the key issues throughout 2015. Olga Mitrovic writes that while various proposals have been made for addressing the crisis, the use of an existing mechanism – the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive – has so far received relatively little attention. She argues that offering temporary protection, as the EU did during the Balkan refugee crises in the 1990s, offers a clear solution to the current situation

Temporary Refuge from War: Customary International Law and the Syrian Conflict

The rule of temporary refuge forms the cornerstone of states’ response in cases of large-scale influx of refugees. In the context of civilians fleeing armed conflict, this legal rule imposes a positive obligation on all states to admit and not to return anyone to a situation of risk to life, and to provide basic rights commensurate with human dignity. Also implicit in the rule is the expectation of shared responsibility for large numbers of refugees and international cooperation towards durable solutions. This article examines the customary international law of temporary refuge (also known as temporary protection) in relation to the Syrian conflict. It discusses implementation of the rule in the practices of three neighbouring countries to Syria, and in the EU. It finds Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to have engaged in practices consistent with the rule of temporary refuge. However, the EU decided not to use the Temporary Protection Directive; instead individual member states have relied on the Refugee Convention and EU law, combined with various other measures not pertinent to temporary protection. It concludes that shared responsibility is the linchpin of temporary refuge. Absent this keystone, the rule of temporary refuge is likely to continue being implemented primarily in a regional context by countries the nearest to the country affected by conflict, as seen in the case of Syria

Study to gather evidence on the working conditions of platform workers VT/2018/032 Final Report 13 December 2019

Platform work is a type of work using an online platform to intermediate between platform workers, who provide services, and paying clients. Platform work seems to be growing in size and importance. This study explores platform work in the EU28, Norway and Iceland, with a focus on the challenges it presents to working conditions and social protection, and how countries have responded through top-down (e.g. legislation and case law) and bottom-up actions (e.g. collective agreements, actions by platform workers or platforms). This national mapping is accompanied by a comparative assessment of selected EU legal instruments, mostly in the social area. Each instrument is assessed for personal and material scope to determine how it might impact such challenges. Four broad legal domains with relevance to platform work challenges are examined in stand-alone reflection papers. Together, the national mapping and legal analysis support a gap analysis, which aims to indicate where further action on platform work would be useful, and what form such action might take

The Syrian refugee crisis: a comparison of responses by Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States

The conflict in Syria between the government of Bashar al-Assad and various other forces, which started in the spring of 2011, continues to cause displacement within the country and across the region. By the end of 2014, an estimated 7.6 million people were internally displaced and 3.7 million Syrians had fled the country since the conflict began (OCHA 2014; UNHCR 2015a). The refugee situation caused by the Syrian conflict is dire, and it has placed enormous strain on neighboring countries. Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey host massive numbers of Syrian refugees, and Syrians have been seeking protection beyond these countries in increasing numbers since 2011. This paper looks at the burdens and costs of the Syrian refugee crisis and considers how they have, or have not, been shared by the international community at large, and in particular by Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It also considers to what degree Syrians have been able to find protection in states outside the region. Germany and Sweden, by the end of 2014, had provided protection to the largest number of Syrian refugees outside the region. Although Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States differ in the level of protection provided to Syrians, all four states have increased protection to Syrians via resettlement and asylum (and in the case of the US temporary protected status) since 2012. Despite this, the degree of protection provided by the four states is modest in relation to that provided by neighboring countries to Syria, and far more could be done. This paper also argues that the international community as a whole has not sufficiently contributed toward alleviating the burden caused by the Syrian refugee influx, in terms of both financial assistance and refugee resettlement. The paper puts forward two general recommendations to reduce the strain on neighboring countries: increase the level of burden sharing by the international community as a whole and more evenly distribute the burden among industrialized states in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific. In terms of enhancing the level of protection for Syrians in countries beyond the region, it proposes three recommendations for states: namely, increase refugee resettlement, facilitate family reunification and other forms of legal admission, and allow refugees to seek protection through embassies in the region

Environmental Displacement: A New Security Risk for Europe

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Chasing Efficiency Can operational changes fix European asylum systems? Bertelsmann Stiftung Migration Policy Institute Europe March 2020

The heightened arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants on European shores in 2015–16 sent policymakers across the continent scrambling for new strategies to manage migration. Proposals to reform the European Union’s legal framework for asylum were the first out of the starting blocks but, several years later, no such agreement has been reached. And with new EU leadership having taken office in late 2019, Brussels is hungry for fresh ideas that will either revive or reform the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Crucial to this search will be a recognition that, while deficiencies still plague Europe’s asylum systems, these systems have changed significantly since the onset of the migration and refugee crisis—even in the absence of legal reforms

NATIONAL STATUSES GRANTED FOR PROTECTION REASONS IN IRELAND. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 96 January 2020

This study examines the national statuses that may be granted for protection reasons in Ireland. The report focuses on national statuses with a sole basis in Irish domestic law and policy and does not examine in detail EU-harmonised statuses. The national statuses discussed in this report are diverse in terms of their policy objectives, legal basis, procedure and content. However, it provides an overview of the potential means of regularising the status of those with a protection need that is not EU-harmonised. The study covers statuses that were granted in Ireland between 2010 and 2018 and includes any statuses that were introduced and subsequently ceased during the study period. The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention) and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees together form the cornerstone of international protection for persons who have been forced to flee their country due to persecution. The 1951 Refugee Convention sets out the definition of a refugee and the standards of protection to which persons recognised as a refugee are entitled. In the EU context, the EU Qualification Directive seeks to harmonise the status granted to persons seeking protection across the EU and ensure a minimum level of rights afforded to persons recognised as refugees or subsidiary protection beneficiaries. Nevertheless, a wide variety of non-harmonised statuses or national statuses granted to non-EU nationals for protection reasons are in place at national level across EU Member States (EMN, 2010). In Ireland, the International Protection Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) gives effect to Ireland’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and incorporates EU-harmonised provisions governing international protection contained in the 2004 Qualification Directive. The 2015 Act provides that a successful international protection applicant may be granted refugee status or subsidiary protection. In addition to the two core international protection statuses, Irish law sets out a number of national statuses for persons with a protection need

Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking at Hotspots, by Focusing on People Smuggled to Europe.

Research has shown that smuggling of migrants is associated with human trafficking. Hence, victims of human trafficking amongst smuggled migrants should be identified by EU Member States at hotspots established by the European Commission, to overcome the migrant and refugee crisis. Identified victims should be given a visa and a programme of protection to escape their traffickers. In order to achieve these objectives, research suggests that EU law on migrant smuggling should be amended and the Temporary Protection Directive should be applied to smuggled persons when there is an indication that they may be victims of human trafficking. This approach should be adopted by the EASO in cooperation with police forces investigating smuggling and trafficking at hotspots