Articles for author: Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifánova

From the EU-Belarus Border to Strasbourg

On 12 February 2025 the ECtHR considered for the first time the interpretation of the Convention in the context of so-called ‘migrant instrumentalisation’ or ‘hybrid attacks’, allegedly orchestrated by the Belarusian regime after the EU imposed sanctions on Minsk. This contribution critically reviews the key arguments of the respondent governments with respect to the interpretation of Art. 3 ECHR and Art. 4 Prot. 4 ECHR and considers the relationship between the two in the particular context.

3. März 2025

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The EU’s Eastern Border and Inconvenient Truths

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, alongside with the EU’s confrontation with Russia’s ally Belarus, however, has deeply impacted the securitisation of migration within the EU. Highly politicised conflict-related securitisation narratives have rarely found their way so swiftly into Member States’ domestic migration and asylum laws, leading to open and far-reaching violations of EU and international human rights law. Hardly ever before have ill-defined concepts and indiscriminate assumptions been so broadly accepted and used to shift from an individual-focused approach to blanket measures stigmatising, dehumanising and excluding entire groups. And rarely before have radical changes of this kind received so little criticism - a deeply unsettling and dangerous trend.

27. Februar 2024

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Migrant Instrumentalisation: Facts and Fictions

The last two years have seen recurring efforts to introduce the concept of instrumentalisation of migration into EU asylum law on a permanent basis. This post will demonstrate why the ‘instrumentalisation of migration’ is an overly simplified and generalised term that does not capture the complexities of the situation on the ground. Its adoption into EU asylum law thus threatens both to undermine legal certainty and bear far-reaching consequences for the Rule of Law in the EU.

21. September 2023

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Seven Months in the Freezing Forest

On 10 November 2022, Latvia extended the emergency situation at its border with Belarus for a further three months – now until February 2023. Introduced in August 2021 in response to the perceived ‘hybrid attack’ organised by Minsk, the state of emergency has since been renewed five times, effectively becoming a permanent condition. In practical terms that means that Latvia will continue carrying out systematic pushbacks – despite the very low number of border crossing attempts and allegations of gross violations of human rights.

15. November 2022

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The Visa Ban, Nikolai and his Russian Sister

The absence of an EU-level decision to bar perceived Russians ‘tourists’ from visiting the EU, however, did not prevent several Member States from adopting such measures at the national level, departing from EU law provisions currently in force. Contrary to the ‘tourist -only’ narrative, however, the new rules severely affect Russian family members of EU citizens and residents – an issue that, so far, has escaped public attention.

29. September 2022

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Trapped in a Lawless Zone

The treatment of asylum-seekers – predominantly from the Middle East – crossing the Latvian border from Belarus is in sharp contrast with the recent decision of the Latvian government to support at least 23,000 people who have arrived in the country from war-torn Ukraine. Those who have paid the highest price for this policy are people who have been forced to remain in the forest for months under inhuman conditions just to be ultimately returned to their country of origin, an experience that has left most of them severely traumatised.

2. Mai 2022

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