Asylum & migration

Protecting the vulnerable

People migrate in search of a better life.

Sometimes, there are factors which force people to move, like war, the risk of persecution, poverty or climate change. It may also be motivated by the desire to find a decent job, to reunite with family members or be an attempt by parents to offer their children more opportunities.

Whatever the reason for this move, people must be treated with solidarity and their human rights must be respected.

Unfortunately, reaching Europe often entails embarking on a dangerous journey. Each year, more than 2,000 people die trying to reach Europe, and violence against migrants is rampant along the journey, in a context of increasingly negative policies and attitudes towards people on the move.

We advocate for a more balanced approach which protects access to asylum in Europe, ensures fair and efficient procedures and reception conditions, creates safe and legal pathways to Europe and promotes social inclusion and welcoming societies. Human dignity and human rights should be at the centre of all policies.

We also want to shift the narrative on migration. It is time to acknowledge the positive and indispensable contribution that migrants make to the diversity of social, cultural, political and economic life in Europe.

The lack of safe and legal ways to enter Europe forces people to rely on smugglers, putting them at risk of exploitation and death.

Migrants risk their lives in unseaworthy boats on the Mediterranean or by climbing the fences at Europe’s external borders.

They are also increasingly demonised and dehumanised in political discourses and media narratives. Policies focus on closing borders, returning migrants and externalising asylum and migration policies to countries of transit and origin by negotiating problematic deals with partners that disregard human rights instead of improving the EU asylum system. These agreements are often in breach of the UN Refugee Convention and risk putting migrants’ lives at risk, as we have seen with Libya, where migrants are experiencing huge levels of violence and mistreatment.

In this context, several countries are repeatedly not implementing EU asylum laws properly and do not provide decent reception conditions to asylum seekers, who are left without accommodation and forced to sleep in the streets in several countries. In addition, pushbacks and violence at the EU internal and external borders have increased in recent years.

These hostile asylum policies increasingly undermine access to EU’s territory and the right to asylum in Europe.

Caritas Europa bases its policy proposals on the experiences of Caritas organisations working on the ground with asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.

This ensures that when implemented, policies have a real and positive impact on the lives of families and individuals in need.

We believe that Europe must stand for its core values, as enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty, respect the UN Refugee Convention, prioritise human rights and the dignity of all people without distinction and show solidarity with low- and middle-income countries that already host more than 80% of the world’s refugees.

We want Europe to demonstrate global leadership to facilitate human mobility and end violence, pushbacks and discrimination within and at its borders.

We want more safe and regular pathways so that people do not have to risk their lives to get to safety or to have a chance at a better life. We want expanded resettlement schemes, humanitarian visas and the prioritisation of family reunification. We also want the facilitation of labour migration beyond highly skilled workers. A welcoming Europe should put migrant workers’ rights and the fight against exploitation and human trafficking at its centre and promote the social inclusion and full participation of migrants in society.

We also call for access to fair and efficient asylum policies across all countries with harmonised reception standards and rules, and permanent robust solidarity among EU Member States. Voluntary return should always prevail over forced return and detention should be avoided.

We need to place people not politics at the centre of Europe’s migration policies and, as encouraged by the Catholic faith, promote a culture of encounter and welcoming societies, rather than one of fear and repudiation.

We want to see a long-term plan for migration in Europe, not short-term reactions, that includes a permanent relocation and solidarity mechanism with shared responsibility among European countries.

We also want Europe to address the root causes of irregular and forced displacement and to do more to support the fight against migrant smugglers and traffickers.

This means increasing significantly the size of budget available to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality in Europe. At the same time, it is important that development aid is not instrumentalised and made conditional on non-European countries cooperating with Europe’s attempts to stop migration.

More money also needs to be spent on conflict prevention and resolution and peace-building, and policies implemented to stop arms sales to conflict regions and countries.

Together, this will allow migration to become a choice and not a necessity.