More opportunities for refugees to enter the EU legally could save lives, control immigration and help identify security risks, according to the Agency for Fundamental Rights. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The EU and member states need to increase legal avenues to ensure more migrants can enjoy their right to asylum and reach Europe safely, according to the Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Already this year, over 370 people have died trying to find a better life by crossing the Mediterranean, the EU agency pointed out in a focus paper.

Increasing legal avenues would ensure controlled immigration because the identity of admitted people would be known, in turn facilitating return should they lose the right to stay. It would also strengthen security through the collection of biometric data and through searches in the Schengen information system, which would help flag possible security risks.

At present, the paper notes, the possibilities for people in need of protection to legally enter and remain in an EU member state are very limited. For security or political reasons, EU countries are often required to close down their diplomatic representations in war-torn countries. For nationals of such countries, obtaining a visa to enter the EU is difficult since there is a risk of overstay. Moreover, nationals of war-affected countries often need to have a transit visa even when they are just passing through an EU member State.

For a persecuted person, it is often impossible to visit a consulate to apply for a visa because diplomatic representations are usually located in areas that are intensively surveilled by security forces. FRA suggests that legal entry channels for people in need of protection could include a number of existing practices, namely resettlement, humanitarian admission programmes, humanitarian visas, simplifying visa requirements for certain nationalities or groups, more generous use of family reunification rules and the use of existing channels for regular migration for the purposes of labour and study.

Malta is one of 16 EU member states which operates a scheme for issuing humanitarian visas.

Malta, Finland, Italy and Portugal have schemes for issuing LTV Schengen visas for humanitarian reasons, including protection related reasons, which are valid in one or more member states.

The EU, however, needs to pledge its fair share of resettlement places to support global efforts to enhance their availability, FRA points out. Moreover, in light of the principles of solidarity and responsibility-sharing, all EU member states, rather than just some of them, should commit themselves to refugee resettlement according to their capacity and possibilities, thereby broadening the number of resettlement countries in the world.

Austria made an important step in this direction when it presented its ‘Save lives’ initiative at the informal JHA Council in July 2014. It proposes an EU-wide resettlement programme whereby accepted refugees would be distributed among EU member states according to agreed-upon criteria.

The European Commission is working on a pilot project to make this initiative operational. It would encompass all EU member states.

Other advantages of legal entry include bolstering the fight against smugglers and traffickers by reducing the demand for human smuggling, which, in turn, would mean that less rehabilitation would be needed – since orderly admission reduces the need for psychosocial care to treat the trauma experienced during migration, the focus paper says.