Most EU countries have taken steps to establish independent fundamental rights monitoring mechanisms at the EU’s external borders. However, overall progress in monitoring remains slow, according to a new report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Although the mechanisms were due to be operational by mid-June 2026, several are not yet fully established and only a few have carried out their first monitoring activities. The report also highlights persisting gaps in the investigation of alleged rights violations at the borders.

FRA's latest report, EU-mandated migration-related fundamental rights monitoring and investigations: Update 2026, examines how Member States monitor the upholding of fundamental rights during the screening of third-country nationals and when assessing asylum claims at the external borders. It also looks at monitoring by EU agencies’ fundamental rights officers. Finally, it assesses how authorities investigate alleged rights violations at the EU’s external borders.

The report points to the following developments: 

• Monitoring under the Pact on Migration and Asylum: By September 2026, 22 Member States had designated a monitoring body or had legislation pending to do so. However, only a few had carried out their first monitoring missions. Only 15 Member States had formally established the mechanisms through national legislation. Most EU countries entrusted the monitoring to national human rights or ombuds institutions, in line with FRA’s guidance. Many monitoring bodies report challenges concerning resources (both human and financial) and access to facilities and documents.
• Monitoring of forced returns: EU Member States carried out around 54,000 forced returns in 2025. While forced-return monitoring systems exist across the EU, concerns remain about their independence and effectiveness. Monitoring missions are declining, and fewer than half of EU countries publish information about their monitoring activities. The systematic use of restraints remains one of the main fundamental rights concerns during forced returns. 
• Monitoring by EU agencies’ fundamental rights officers: Fundamental rights officers of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the EU Agency for Asylum identified issues such as obstacles to accessing asylum, excessive use of force, gaps in child protection, as well as poor reception conditions and a lack of support for people in vulnerable situations.
• Investigations of rights violations at borders: The report flags persistent shortcomings in the investigation of rights violations at EU external borders. Between 2020 and 2025, authorities in 12 EU Member States opened 322 criminal investigations into alleged rights violations at borders. Only nine resulted in convictions. Most cases are discontinued at the preliminary stage, often due to difficulties in obtaining evidence. Case law by the European Court of Human Rights has already identified gaps in the effectiveness of national investigations; this same case law can help authorities to address these shortcomings.

To strengthen fundamental rights protection, FRA calls for:

• Independent monitoring bodies with clear legal mandates, adequate resources and unrestricted access to facilities, documents and information.
• Greater transparency through the publication of monitoring findings and recommendations.
• Independent and effective monitoring of forced returns, including stronger safeguards against the routine use of restraints. Restraint measures should only be used when necessary and proportionate.
• Prompt, effective and impartial investigations into alleged rights violations at borders, with proper follow-up to findings by monitoring bodies and EU agencies.
• Stronger cooperation and exchange of good practices among national monitoring bodies across the EU.

Quote from FRA Director Sirpa Rautio

“Independent monitoring must be more than a requirement on paper. Monitoring bodies need the authority, resources and access to examine how people are treated at borders. When there are credible allegations of abuse, authorities must investigate them promptly and effectively.” Under the Migration and Asylum Pact, FRA supports Member States by developing common methodologies, providing expert guidance and facilitating cooperation through an EU-wide network of national monitoring bodies.

For more please contact: media@fra.europa.eu / Tel.: +43 1 580 30 642

The following video message was delivered by Michael O'Flaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, at 2026 ECRI Annual Seminar with Equality Bodies on "The role of Equality Bodies in addressing  hateful and discriminatory narratives in political and other public discourse".

Hello,

Thank you very much for inviting me to attend this conference and again I apologise that I'm unable to be with you in person. This week I'm in Warsaw attending a number of events. But friends, I think that the topic of this conference is so tight, timely and so necessary.

The hate that you will be engaging with, discussing, considering over these days is one I experience every day in my work. I see it in the hate directed against Jews. I'm deeply worried about the rising levels of anti-Semitism in our societies.

I see the worrying level of hatred against Muslims, anti-Muslim hatred, and again, this is a growing problem that is as of yet under-acknowledged in at least some of our societies.

I see the marginalisation, the erection of every form of hate against members of the Roma and Traveller communities, a persistent hatred, but one we must tackle. I see the persecution levels of hate directed against members of the LGBTIQ communities, again in far too many, in many member states of the Council of Europe.

I see the impact of the hate. I see the extent to which it triggers fear, it triggers exclusion, the extent to which people are subject to every form of discrimination, subject to violence. I see the massive under-reporting of the phenomenon, not least because people do not have confidence in the authorities to take seriously their complaints and their concerns.

I see the great difficulty you have as equality bodies in engaging with the range of the hates that you have to confront in a context of sometimes at least a lack of political support and the lack, certainly, of the necessary resources to do your job properly.

For your conference today I encourage you to consider a number of actions.

The first is one, a point I would have made often in my previous role as Director of the Fundamental Rights Agency, but is no less important in my current capacity and that is we need to invest in the data.

We won't fix it if we don't measure it, and yet we do a poor job in many places of gathering data around the lived experience of being the victim of hate, including racialised hate, in so many different settings and contexts, and of course once we have the data we need to use it, we need to let it be the bedrock for solid policy and legal responses.

A second consideration that you might wish to have before you today, is the extent to which we, all of us but including equality bodies need to challenge our authorities, our governments to do a better job. They have to stamp out the expressions of hate when they come from political figures. They have to prosecute hate when it crosses the criminal line. They have to, as I said earlier, resource all of the necessary efforts and initiatives.

Still another duty that we all have and I know that it's before you, it's on your agenda, is the extent to which we all have to invest in building up societies that don't just tolerate difference but actively promote it as an essential element of what makes our societies thriving and fulfilling places.

And lastly, ultimately and most important of all, whatever we do we must do it not for but with the impacted communities. We will do so much better a job and indeed will be far more respectful of human rights when we work out every step of our analysis of the situation and the action we need to take in response to that situation, side by side, with the impacted community. I wish you every best wish for your considerations.

Thank you.

Saranno attivate da mercoledì prossimo, 21 ottobre, le udienze periferiche in val Pusteria della responsabile dell’Area Teza Età presso la Difesa civica, Vera Tronti Harpf: i colloqui, su prenotazione, a Brunico e a Dobbiaco.

Il servizio dell’Area Terza Età della Difesa civica si estende ulteriormente sul territorio: dopo l'attivazione degli appuntamenti in Val Venosta (qui ulteriori informazioni), a partire da mercoledì prossimo, 21 ottobre, la responsabile Vera Tronti Harpf effettuerà udienze anche in Val Pusteria.

Le udienze si svolgeranno alternativamente a Brunico, presso il Comune (Piazza Municipio 1), e a Dobbiaco, presso il Comune (Via Conte Künigl1), sempre dalle ore 14.30 alle ore 17.00, secondo il seguente calendario:
a Brunico il 21.10.26, 23.12.26, 24.2.27, 21.4.27, 23.6.27, 22.9.27 e 24.11.27;
a Dobbiaco il 25.11.26, 20.1.27, 24.3.27, 19.5.27, 21.7.27, 20.10.27 e 22.12.27 .

La nuova Area Terza Età, attiva dal mese di settembre presso la Difesa civica, si occupa di tutelare e promuovere i diritti delle persone anziane, promuovere politiche per l’invecchiamento attivo, sensibilizzare e offrire consulenza in merito, mediare in caso di conflitti tra persone anziane, loro familiari o  amministrazioni pubbliche, vigilare sul rispetto della dignità della persona, segnalare situazioni che richiedono intervento giudiziario o assistenziale.

Le consulenze sono rivolte a cittadine e cittadini di età pari o superiore ai 65 anni. È necessaria la prenotazione tramite il nr. telefonico 0471.946020 o la mail vera.tronti@difesacivica-bz.org.

El Defensor del Pueblo de Navarra-Nafarroako Arartekoa, Patxi Vera, ha participado en el foro de encuentro y debate organizado por la Red Navarra de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en el marco de actividades denominado “Octubre, mes contra la pobreza”. Durante el acto se han abordado las principales problemáticas que afectan a las personas en situación de vulnerabilidad en la Comunidad Foral, entre las que destacan las dificultades de acceso a la vivienda, el tratamiento de la salud mental, la tramitación de prestaciones como la Renta Garantizada o el Ingreso Mínimo Vital, la agilización de procedimientos administrativos o la persistencia de la brecha digital.

Durante su intervención, el Defensor ha explicado las competencias, funciones e instrumentos de la institución para garantizar el respeto de los derechos fundamentales de las personas frente a las administraciones públicas.

El Defensor del Pueblo y la Red Navarra de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social han coincidido en la importancia de  acercar la institución a las entidades sociales y trabajar en red en favor de la ciudadanía.