Confining irregular migrants to frontline countries such as Malta and Italy constitutes a “punishment” for both migrant and country and only serves to empower smuggling rings, a UN human rights expert has warned.

Speaking in Brussels, where he rounded up his study on EU border management, François Crépeau highlighted the “undue responsibilities” placed on frontline countries by the EU and lambasted member states as responsible for creating conditions that encourage smuggling.

François Crépeau highlighted the “undue responsibilities” placed on frontline countries by the EU. Photos: Darrin Zammit Lupi

He highlighted the “collapse” of the Dublin Regulation – the EU law stating that asylum seekers have to remain in the first European country they enter and which obliges member states to fingerprint all asylum applicants.

“The information I have gathered demonstrates that the Dublin mechanisms prevent EU member states from taking shared responsibility for the asylum seekers, discourage frontline states from fully implementing Dublin Regulations and encourage asylum seekers to use smugglers,” Mr Crépeau, who visited Malta in December, stressed.

“A question I have often heard from frontline state officials is: ‘How much physical violence does Brussels want us to use so as to implement Dublin?’ Migrants and asylum seekers are unwilling to provide their fingerprints because they do not trust that it serves their best interest in the long term.”

What fingerprinting did in practice was to enable member states to send migrants, who would have travelled inland, back to border countries like Italy and Malta.

Mr Crépeau argued that member states should allow migrants to circulate within the EU, allowing them to be reunited with their families or to find a job and start contributing to their new communities and paying taxes.

“Trying to confine migrants to the territory of the frontline countries obliges them to continue travelling underground, further empowering smuggling rings and unscrupulous employers, and places undue responsibilities on such frontline countries.”

The Dublin mechanisms prevent EU member states from taking shared responsibility for the asylum seekers

An EU-wide resettlement programme, supported by funding for the countries receiving the asylum seekers, would reverse Dublin’s logic and incentivise asylum seekers to register themselves in the first European country of entry and not resort to evasion tactics.

European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramo­poulos has already called for a similar measure to be implemented. His call comes in the context of increases in the number of migrants travelling into Europe from Africa.

Just last year, it was estimated that some 150,000 migrants made the Mediterranean crossing, compared to 80,000 in 2013.

EU member states, Mr Crépeau argued, should accept that migrants will persist in making the perilous journey to Europe since push factors (such as conflict and extreme poverty) and pull factors (such as EU labour needs) encourage them to do so.

“Any attempt at ‘sealing’ borders, as the nationalist populist discourse stridently calls for – that is, preventing irregular migrants from entering the EU without offering more legal avenues for migration – will continue to fail on a massive scale.

“Migrants will continue arriving despite all efforts to stop them, often at a terrible cost in lives and suffering,” he said, emphasising that prohibitions and repressive policies only served to entrench smuggling operations, which in turn translated into more deaths at sea and more human rights violations.

Human suffering at Europe’s borders would only be reduced with regulated openness and mobility and not with strict closure and repression.

The EU must also strengthen Frontex’s Triton Operation, which has already rescued some 17,000 migrants over the past two months, he recommended.

This would include providing it with a longer term mandate, more resources and an increased area for its search and rescue operations – similar to that of Mare Nostrum – for it to effectively continue to save lives.

“The search and rescue programmes cannot be the sole responsibility of the frontline countries. With the current surge in migration, the EU should ensure there are sufficient reception centres with facilities to accommodate new arrivals.”