The European Council on Refuges and Exiles (ECRE) and its legal network on asylum (ELENA) organised the events.
The two workshops, held for two different groups of participants, discussed current issues and challenges of search and rescue at sea and the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance. Their purpose was to foster discussion and exchange of views among legal practitioners working on the ground. It also aimed to give them a well-informed ‘helicopter view’ on the matter, and better tools and insights to work with similar cases.
The workshops ran from 28 to 29 October.
Some 80 participants attended the training course, mostly legal practitioners across Europe, together with representatives of the UN Refugee Agency, the EU Asylum Agency, the EU Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights as well as NGO advocacy staff and legal academia.