At the occasion of the IE EMN NCP conference in Dublin, a wide audience, including national policy makers and experts as well as representatives from the Commission and other NCPs, discussed protection challenges.

On Wednesday 5 December in the European Parliament, key stakeholders, including EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, Ms Vassiliadou, will comment on the realities of combating trafficking.

In a strategic Communication adopted today, the Commission examines how the implementation and development of the common visa policy could help growth in the EU by facilitating travel opportunities for third country nationals willing to visit the EU.

The Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) achieved a Political Agreement on the Reception Conditions Directive, discussed recent developments in Syria and council conclusions were endorsed concerning the new EU strategy to combat human trafficking.

To mark the 6th EU Anti-Trafficking Day, the Cyprus EU Presidency and the European Commission are organising the conference 'Working together towards the eradication of trafficking in human beings: The Way Forward'

In its latest annual report, published today, the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking watchdog GRETA (Group of experts on action against trafficking in human beings) urges countries across the continent to step up the fight against human trafficking.

In view of the new legal framework and the interest taken by civil society in the EU's management of external borders, including its fundamental rights dimension, the Ombudsman seeks to clarify, by an own-initiative inquiry, the implementation by Frontex of its fundamental rights obligations.

The annual conference on the Schengen area (Academy of European Law) intents to provide legal practitioners with an in-depth analysis of the European Commission's proposed Regulation on the establishment of an evaluation and monitoring mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis.

On 30 June 2012 the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union, taking over the Danish Presidency, presented its 6 months programme. Asylum, Migration and Borders is one of the priorities of the Cyprus Presidency's Operational Programme.

The Belgian Minister of Justice and the State Secretary for Immigration and Asylum have presented a new national action plan to combat trafficking in human beings and human smuggling to the Belgian Council of Ministers.

Based on judgement in case C-83/12 Minh Koa Vo, a Member State may impose criminal penalties for aiding illegal immigration when the persons who have entered the Union territory, national of non member countries, hold visas fraudulently obtained but not yet annulled.

The Ministers responsible for asylum and migration of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom met in Brussels on 7 March 2012 to discuss measures in the field of combating illegal immigration

Do human rights offer real protection? Does it help victims of human trafficking to define their case as a violation of human rights? Such questions will be examined and debated at the university of Antwerp on 19 January 2012.