Lithuania: new law allows “volunteers” to join border guards against migrants Lithuania's parliament passed a new law allowing “volunteers” from any EU state to join its national border guard force and use violence against people crossing in from Belarus. These “volunteers" will be allowed to "use coercion", help make arrests, and perform other patrol guard-like duties. The bill also allows patrol guards to force people back into Belarus. The law has been criticized by human rights campaigners and Amnesty International as a green light to torture. Cyprus: government to speed up voluntary returns of migrants The Cypriot Minister of Interior has announced plans to step up voluntary returns of migrants from the island, indicating that for the past six years, Cyprus had received a disproportionate number of asylum seekers compared to other EU states in relation to its population. To ease the policy, a deputy ministry of migration will be created. The government is also deploying 220 special guards and installing cameras to monitor the buffer zone between the northern and southern parts of Cyprus, for crossings of migrants. EU extends support to Libya, despite alarming human rights situation The EU Council extended on 20 March the mandate of the EU military operation IRINI in the Mediterranean until 2025. This operation does not only aim at enforcing the UN arms embargo on Libya, but also contributing to “the capacity building and training of the Libyan Coast Guard and Navy” to counter human smuggling and trafficking networks. This partnership has been widely criticised, especially by the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, that expressed deep concern over the country’s deteriorating human rights situation in its final report published end of March, pointing to a wide array of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by State security forces and armed militia groups. European Parliament to enter negotiations on migration with member states The European Parliament has voted in plenary to enter interinstitutional negotiations on several migration files that the civil liberties committee had voted on in March. These files include several proposals of the EU Migration Pact, that would increase detention for people coming to Europe via irregular routes and speed up deportations while lowering procedural safeguards. Council of Europe Committee calls on European governments to end pushbacks In its 2022 annual report, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) focuses on the prevention of ill-treatment of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty in the context of forced removals at borders. The CPT has reported ill-treatment and repeated pushbacks of foreign nationals across borders (on land and at sea), without effective access to means of protection. The CPT calls on European governments to protect fundamental rights of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation at the European borders and demands that all European governments reinforce safeguards against ill-treatment and collective deportations.