24 March 2016

In a report released recently, Caritas Europa analyses the impact of EU policies on accessing protection. The report includes testimonials from refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and undertakes a thorough analysis of a full spectrum of migration-related issues – access to international protection, non-refoulement, family reunification, labour migration and irregular migration – and includes a series of recommendations to the EU and its Member States to improve access to protection.

Asylum seekers face  considerable challenges in accessing protection in Europe, starting from the  lack of legal  paths to enter the EU. The use of detention, criminalisation of irregular entry, the externalisation of border controls and the European measures taken over 2015 are analysed in the report.

Caritas Europa calls on the EU and its Member States to authorise the issuing of humanitarian visas for people seeking protection, to establish a mechanism based on solidarity for the sharing of asylum seekers and to establish mutual recognition of positive asylum decisions across the EU. The organisation further urges the EU to uphold the principle of non-refoulement and to refrain from using the safe country of origin concept.

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This article will appear in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 25 March 2016. You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.