The right to respect for family life in deportation cases: Is the ECtHR taking a step backwards?

Immigrants are protected from expulsion by the right to respect for private and family life. But in certain circumstances after a criminal conviction, expulsion may be justified. The ECtHR seems to lower the level of protection in its recent case law.

Mark Klaassen and Gerrie Lodder • January 29, 2018

The right of residence for non-EU parents of EU citizen children: the Chavez-Vilchez case

The EU Court of Justice explains the Zambrano doctrine: what matters is not just whether an EU-citizen parent could take care of the child, but whether the child has a relationship of dependency with the non-EU parent.

Mark Klaassen • May 12, 2017 • 17 comments

Divorce of convenience?

According to an AG Opinion, a divorced third-country national parent of a minor EU citizen can get a derived right of residence, even if the other parent is still in the country. Do broken families enjoy more protection under EU law than intact ones?

Mark Klaassen • October 13, 2016

The Future of EU Asylum Law

With the ink of the latest recasts barely dry, the Commission is already pushing for new reforms of EU asylum law. The goal: a unified European asylum policy.

Mark Klaassen • April 22, 2016

The Jungle and the Right to Family Unification

A UK Tribunal has ruled that four asylum seekers from ‘the Jungle’ of Calais have to be reunited with their family members in the UK while awaiting an asylum decision.

Mark Klaassen • February 10, 2016

Family reunification for refugees is a human right

The failure of the Dublin system seems to have led to a race to the bottom among Member States in reception conditions for refugees, to the detriment of human rights protection.

Mark Klaassen • November 03, 2015

Towards legal access for asylum seekers

People drowning in the Mediterranean reach the headlines of the news, but the problem that there is no legal way of access for asylum seekers is hardly discussed. In this post the underlying problem of border deaths is discussed.

Mark Klaassen • October 01, 2015

When is a child forced to leave the EU?

In Ruiz Zambrano the Court of Justice of the EU decided that a minor EU child may not be forced to leave the territory of the EU. Four years later it is still not clear what implications this ruling has.

Mark Klaassen • April 30, 2015

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