In January, BVMN’s Legal Working Group submitted three contributions to the call for input for the European Commission’s Rule of Law Report. The submission is open for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from each country; BVMN submitted input for three EU Member States: Croatia, Greece and Slovenia.

In the submission on Slovenia, BVMN elaborated on how the practice of chain-pushbacks happening from and through Slovenia constitute a violation of the rule of law and its interrelation with readmission agreements in place between Croatia and Slovenia. In addition, BVMN elaborated on the effects of the amendment to the Law on Foreigners, that could lead to restricted access to asylum in case of a “complex emergency”. Furthermore, it includes a section on the length of asylum procedures in the country, that increased for non-Ukranian people on the move; the lack of implementation of judgements regarding pushback survivors, such as in case I U1686/2020; as well as the increasing public narrative of CSOs being framed as “smugglers”, while at the same time in the country’s new Action Plan on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, the surveillance of “criminal NGOs” is mentioned, which could lead to an increase in criminalisation.