DETENTION AND RETURNS New PICUM report calls for residence permits for people who are denied asylum PICUM recently published a report about the main human rights reasons for which people who do not qualify for asylum cannot be deported, as well as the external circumstances that can make deportation or return impossible. The report highlights situations where people who are not returned can neither access protection nor be returned, because of human rights or practical reasons, which forces people to live in irregularity. The report provides an overview of existing alternative residence permits, and looks at key elements to make such permits and statuses meaningfully accessible, and then focused on rights and protection. UN condemns Belgium over the detention of migrant children The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has condemned Belgium for the detention of migrant children in closed centres. Although the practice was abandoned years ago and the current government pledged not to detain any child, a clear ban on detaining children is not yet enshrined in Belgian law. In a joint press release, the Platform Minors in Exile, Défense des Enfants International Belgique, Move (a coalition between CIRÉ, JRS Belgium, Caritas International, Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen), and other associations demand an urgent change in law to clarify that children can never be locked up. Belgian civil society has been campaigning against the detention of children since 2019. New reports document violence against migrants in Croatia and, Greece A recent report from the Centre for Peace Studies and the Welcome Initiative documents the systematic pushbacks and police violence against migrants in Croatia between 2020 and 2021. The report recommends that Croatian authorities urgently end the illegal pushbacks, establish independent and effective monitoring mechanisms, carry out effective investigations into human rights violations against migrants, and provide effective legal remedies. A report by the Border Violence Monitoring Network documents increased police brutality, structural and racist violence targeting migrants in Greece. The report analyses physical violence in state-run detention centres, police brutality around the port of Patras, and structural forms of violence caused by the Greek migration and asylum policies. The report collects 44 testimonies of cases of violence, involving a total of 91 victims.