Articles about EASO

Please find below links to a selection of articles related to EASO’s activities, according to their year of publication. For videos, click here. 

2018

• Politico: Boss of under-fire EU asylum agency pledges quick fix, 18 October 2018
• Le Monde: Jamil Addou, Director of the European Asylum Support Office, calls for greater harmonization in the examination of applications from refugees arriving in the EU, 18 October 2018
• Der Spiegel:We have to prove that the EU is capable of a structured, sustainable and predictable solution, says Addou, 18 October 2018
• Deutsche Welle: Anis Cassar, a spokesperson for the European Asylum Support Office, told DW that EU governments are granting more places to Afghan asylum-seekers this year over last. Cassar said that in 2017, 30 percent of Afghans were allowed to stay in their countries of application. For the first six months of 2018, he said that figure had risen to 43 percent, 10 October 2018
• Politico: Applications for asylum fell by 44 percent across the EU in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to a report by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) released Monday, 18 June 2018
• Euractiv: A report by the EU asylum office, EASO clearly shows that the vast majority of the unaccompanied minors are from Afghanistan, 12 April 2018
• Fox News: EASO said Thursday that 706,913 people sought asylum in the 28 EU nations plus Norway and Switzerland in 2017, 43 percent lower than the year before, 1 February 2018
• El Mundo: The European Asylum Support Office began in early 2017 to make weekly and monthly reports on social networks to observe migratory trends, changes in prices and marketing strategies of traffickers, 4 July 2018 (Spanish)
• Deutsche Welle: Germany saw a 70 percent drop in asylum applications last year, data released on Monday by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) showed, 18 June 2018
• El Nacional: The number of Venezuelans who sought asylum in the European Union (EU) grew almost 800% in the last two years, being the tenth nationality that more requests accounted for during this period, reported Thursday the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), 5 April 2018 (Spanish)
• Georgia Today: EASO: Asylum Applications by Georgians to EU Increased by 113%, 2 March 2018
• ANSA: Migrants: EU Agency, Venezuelan protection requests grow, 5 April 2018 (Italian)
• The Wall Street Journal: Syrians continued to make up the largest single group of asylum seekers in Europe, with 98,000 applications last year according to EASO, though that number was off 69% from 2016, 1 February 2018
• Financial Times: The European Asylum Support Office’s annual report found there were 728,470 applications for international protection in 2017, down 44 per cent from the previous year, 18 June 2018

2017

• El Espanol: The Executive Director of the European Asylum Office, José Carreira, sees the need for a permanent mechanism for the distribution of refugees in the EU, 7 October 2017
• EU Observer: EU asylum chief: The 'future' arrived in 2015, 20 November 2017
• Interia.pl: EASO supports Italy in dealing with the migration crisis, 31 October 2017
• EU Observer: "The applications lodged in Greece indeed increased during the course of the year," said EASO spokesperson Jean-Pierre Schembri, 6 January 2017
• Welt.de: The real innovation, however, is the monitoring program of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) - a joint EU agency, 25 May 2017
• Times of Malta: Broad agreement to establish EU Agency for Asylum reached, 29 June 2017
• Euractiv: EASO: Vast majority of migrants arriving in Italy not eligible for relocation, 5 July 2017
• EU Reporter:The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is supporting Italy’s efforts with an online outreach campaign to identify all potential relocation applicants, 26 July 2017
• Berliner Zeitung: Convincing evidence is also provided by a report from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), 12 September 2017. (German)
• EU Observer: Over 60,000 people claimed asylum in the EU, Norway and Switzerland in September 2017, compared to some 125,000 the same month last year, the European Asylum Support Office said Friday, 3 November 2017.
• Interia: We get a lot of feedback from the migrants we helped to relocate - they are studying, working, dreaming, they have learnt the language and the local community has adopted them. The lives of over 30,000 people have been changed for the better, 31 October 2017. (Polish)

2016

• New York Times.com: The relocation process can take months as European Union countries conduct background security checks on applicants, said Jean-Pierre Schembri, a spokesman for the European Asylum Support Office, which oversees the program, 26 March 2016
• Reuters.com: “Asylum-seekers arriving on the Greek islands will now be subject to an “inadmissibility check” before Greek authorities consider their asylum claims”, according to Jean-Pierre Schembri, spokesman for the European Asylum Support Office, 5 April 2016
• Newsweek.com: Refugee Crisis: EU 'Could Take More Control over Asylum', 5 April 2016
• Le Monde.fr: L’idée de Bruxelles serait de transformer l’actuel « bureau européen d’appui en matière d’asile » (l’EASO, European Asylum Support Office) en une agence traitant de manière centralisée toutes les demandes d’asile parvenant dans un pays de l’Union, 5 April 2016
• BBC NEWS: Live interview in Lesbos, Greece, with Jean-Pierre Schembri, EASOs Spokesperson, 6 April 2016
• Financial Times.com: The European Asylum Support Office, which offers advice and support to member states, would become a federal agency with clout, 6 April 2016
• BBC.co.uk: EASO says 62 of its officers will arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos today to begin 'admissibility checks' for asylum seekers. 7 April 2016.
• Voice of America: There will be individual assessments.  There will be no automatic return.  Everybody will be given the right to ask for asylum,” Jean-Pierre Schembri, spokesman for the European Asylum Support Office, told VOA from Lesbos, 7 April 2016  
• The Economist.com: For the first time a private-security firm has been contracted to guard the hotspots, backing up the Greek police. “We have had a number of riots, staff have had to be evacuated quickly. So, we felt we needed additional security,” said Jean-Pierre Schembri, EASO’s spokesperson, 25 June 2015.
• Wall Street Journal.com: The current backlog of asylum claims in the European Union could take a year to work through, the European Asylum Support Office warned on Friday, 8 July 2016
• Reuters.com: Nearly 96,000 refugee and migrant children who traveled to Europe alone in 2015 sought asylum in the European Union, almost four times as many as the previous year said the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) said in its annual report for 2015, 8 July 2016. 

2015

• The Wall Street Journal: The EU’s European Asylum Support Office says just about all Kosovar applicants have been seeking asylum in Hungary, Austria or Germany, 19 February 2015
• CNN: Jean-Claude Junker has also argued for greater assistance to the European Asylum Support Office, which is based in Malta, arguing for "more thorough risk assessments to spot problem areas before they become overloaded.", 20 April 2015
• Le Monde.fr: Naufrage en Méditerranée : la Commission européenne propose dix actions « immédiates » Dans ce domaine, le plan d'urgence prévoit le déploiement d'équipes du Bureau européen de soutien à l'asile (European Asylum Support Office, EASO) en Italie et en Grèce pour aider à la gestion des demandes d'asile, 20 April 2015
• New York Times.com: Over the last 10 or 20 years, Ukrainians were essentially not present in the asylum numbers, said the executive director of the European Asylum Support Office, based in Malta, 30 may 2015
• Ekhatimerini.com: EU to help gov’t register and relocate refugees - The agreement was made during a meeting last week between representatives of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and the Greek government in Athens, 30 August 2015
• BBC.com: Migrant crisis: Who does the EU send back? In 2014 asylum applicants from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Somalia had a success rate above 50% in the EU, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) reports, 9 September 2015
• Wall Street Journal.com: According to the head of the European Asylum Support Office the first such registration centers in Italy and Greece would have more than 100 staff each to help document arriving migrants, 14 September 2015
• Huffington Post.com: Germany Can’t Indefinitely Absorb Refugees - A joint border security with Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean is overdue. The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is already the embryo of a European asylum authority, 13 October 2015
• Deutsche Welle.com: European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and FRONTEX together announced that they needed 1,149 experts for their staff, 14 October 2015
• Independent.co.uk:  In a recently released report, the European Asylum Support Office, a European Union agency designed to help coordinate asylum practices, had found that Afghan asylum seekers faced a wide variation in rates of acceptance across member states, 29 October 2015
• The Guardian.com: Member states have so far provided less than half the 374 experts and 743 border guards requested by the European Asylum Support Office and Frontex, the European border control agency, 5 November 2015Financial Times: European Asylum Support Office says 6,000 arrivals each day in Greece alone are flooding system, 10 November 2015

2014

• ASSER Institute - Centre for International and European Law, CLEER working papers, Dr. Robert K. Visser: 'Two realities - striking the balance', July 2014.
• Jean-Claude Juncker’s Political Guidelines for the next European Commission: ‘A New Start for Europe: My Agenda for Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change’, 15 July 2014.
• BBC: ‘Sharp rise in Ukrainians seeking EU asylum - EASO data’, 7 July 2014.
• EurActiv: ‘Asylum seekers up by 30% in 2013, EU says’, 7 July 2014.
• Cyprus News Digest: ‘Interview with EASO’s Executive Director about the Special Support Plan to Cyprus’, 19 June 2014.
• New Europe: ‘EU signs agreement with Switzerland on the modalities of its participation in EASO’, 11 June 2014.
• Ansa: ‘Migration: ‘EU project starts with Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco’, 15 May 2014.
• Reuters: ‘Bulgaria: UNHCR says asylum conditions improved, warns against transfer of vulnerable people’, 15 April 2014.
• Prompt Media: ‘The head of the European Asylum Support visit to Bucharest’, 7 March 2014 (translation).
• Agencia EFE: ‘The Twenty-address migration pressure after the tragedy of Ceuta’, 2 March 2014 (translation).

2013

• Times of Malta: 'EU did not understand PM's migration message', 8 September 2013.
• Euractiv: 'EU experiences surge of asylum-seekers from Syria', 10 July 2013.
• Euro News: 'EU asylum applications up in 2012, new report says', 8 July 2013.
• RTT News: 'EU Asylum Support Office, Rights Agency Sign Working Arrangement', 12 June 2013.
• Di-ve: 'EASO and Italy sign Special Support Plan', 4 June 2013.
• European Commission Audiovisual Services: ‘Greek Action Plan on Asylum and Migration Management: – signing ceremony between Nikolaos DENDIAS, Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection and representatives of E.A.S.O. (European Asylum Support Office)‘, 7 March 2013.
• Hearing in the European Parliament, led by MEP Timothy Kirkhope: ‘My Asylum and Migration Hearing', 7 March 2013.

Please note this is only a selection. Also note that EASO is not responsible for the content.

2012

• Malta Star: ‘Frontex and European Asylum Support Office sign working arrangement’, 26 September 2012.
• Malta Today: ‘Prime Minister inaugurates European Asylum Support Office’, 7 September 2012.
• Malta Star: ‘First EASO annual report highlights rising migration mobility’, 20 July 2012.
• EU Observer: ‘Commission probes Italy asylum abuse allegations’, 20 July 2012.
• European Voice: ‘Migration Manager’, 12 July 2012.
• Euractiv: ‘Most asylum seekers in EU come from Afghanistan’, 11 July 2012.
• The Malta Independent: ‘EASO to have central role in Malta’s pilot project evaluation’, 11 March 2012.
• The Malta Independent: ‘EASO training additional asylum officers’, 10 February 2012.
• Wort.lu: ‘EU support to manage asylum seekers’, 27 January 2012.
• The Malta Independent: ‘European Asylum Support Office publishes 2012 Work Programme’, 12 January 2012.

Please note this is only a selection. More than 180 articles have been published on EASO in 2012. Also note that EASO is not responsible for the content.

2011

• UNHCR: ‘EASO Consultative Forum with Civil Society’, 15 November 2011.
• ECRE: ‘ECRE Interview with Dr. Robert Visser’, PDF, 23 September 2011.
• The Times of Malta: ‘’Major Step’ towards common approach’, 20 June 2011.
• The Times of Malta: ‘New EASO director pledges to promote relocation of refugees’, 19 June 2011.
• Malta Today: ‘European Asylum Support Office (EASO) signs seat agreement with Malta’, 24 May 2011.

Please note this is only a selection. More than 150 articles have been published on EASO in 2011. Also note that EASO is not responsible for the content.

2010

• The Times of Malta: ‘Asylum office chief impresses MEPs’, 27 December 2010.
• Malta Today: ‘European Asylum Support Office elects executive director’, 26 November 2010.
• The Times of Malta: ‘Brussels sets ball rolling for first EU agency in Malta’, 3 March 2010.

Please note this is only a selection. More than 30 articles have been published on EASO in 2010. Also note that EASO is not responsible for the content.

2009

• The Times of Malta: ‘Malta wins bid to host EU Asylum Office’, 30 November 2009.
• The Times of Malta: ‘Is it voluntary or compulsory?’, 14 October 2009.
• The Times of Malta: ‘EU plans asylum agency’, 19 February 2009.

Please note this is only a selection. More than 10 articles have been published on EASO in 2009. Also note that EASO is not responsible for the content.