Annexes to COM(2015)58 - Fifth Report on the Post-Visa Liberalisation Monitoring for the Western Balkan Countries in accordance with the Commission Statement of 8 November 2010 - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2015)58 - Fifth Report on the Post-Visa Liberalisation Monitoring for the Western Balkan Countries in accordance with the Commission ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2015)58  |
| date | February 25, 2015 |
- Serbia stepped up its assistance programme for the Roma, including in employment, civil registration, and empowering local governments in the field of social inclusion. It distributed leaflets and set up a government website informing citizens of their rights and obligations under the visa-free scheme, prosecuted several facilitators of irregular migration, and improved the exchange of information with the most‑affected EU and Schengen-associated countries. In its 2014 report, Frontex also highlighted the success of Serbia’s stricter border controls.14
3.3.The ‘pull factors’ of asylum abuse and measures to address it
The main ‘pull factors’ driving asylum abuse from the Western Balkans remained unchanged, including the presence of a diaspora community in the recipient states, the duration of the asylum procedure, the amount of cash benefits received, access to begging or the illegal labour market, and knowledge of past asylum recognition rates. 2013 afforded several examples of how Member States sought to mitigate the impact of these factors:
- Hungary enhanced border controls with Serbia in 2013, refusing entry to 5 400 Serbian citizens, 65 % more than in the previous year. Nearly three quarters of Hungary’s entry refusals were issued owing to overstaying, failing to meet the conditions of subsistence or failing to justify the purpose of stay. Last year, Serbian border authorities refused exit to more than 6 500 Serbian citizens unable to justify the purpose of their stay in the EU. Altogether, the two countries’ border authorities prevented entry to the Schengen area of nearly 5 in 1 000 travellers, a significantly higher proportion than at any other section of the EU’s external border;15
- Germany revised its asylum procedure on 29 September 2014, adding Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia to its list of safe countries of origin. Given that the overwhelming majority of Western Balkan applicants chose Germany as their principal destination country in 2013, this legislative amendment is likely to have an impact on the distribution of migration flows in the medium term.
Several Member States, including the main EU destination states with the exception of Sweden, have adopted national legislation defining certain visa-free Western Balkan countries as safe countries of origin, in line with the Asylum Procedures Directive:
- Albania, whose citizens mainly targeted France, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Belgium for asylum in 2013, is considered a safe country of origin by Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the UK;
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose citizens mainly targeted Germany, France, Sweden and Switzerland for asylum in 2013, is considered a safe country of origin by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the UK;
- The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, whose citizens mainly targeted Germany, Belgium, Sweden and France for asylum in 2013, is considered a safe country of origin by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the UK;
- Montenegro, whose citizens mainly targeted Germany, France, Luxembourg and Sweden for asylum in 2013, is considered a safe country of origin by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Slovakia and the UK;
- Serbia, whose citizens mainly targeted Germany, Sweden, Belgium and France for asylum in 2013, is considered a safe country of origin by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the UK.
The use of the safe country of origin concept should be coupled with other measures to mitigate asylum abuse. EASO has summarised other reforms that have successfully reduced asylum abuse in recent years while respecting applicants’ fundamental rights:
- high-level visits to the countries concerned and information campaigns in cooperation with local NGOs and municipalities, to inform citizens about the rights and obligations of visa-free travel, using print and electronic media;
- continued operational cooperation with the authorities of the countries concerned;
- reducing cash benefits, such as pocket money and financial return assistance, to reduce the financial incentives for asylum abuse;
- shortening asylum procedures by having more staff assess asylum cases in peak periods or by establishing an accelerated – fast-track – procedure that enables the swift processing of applications at peak times or for citizens of particular countries.
3.4.Other developments related to the EU visa-free scheme
The European Parliament and the Council adopted a revised Asylum Procedures Directive (Directive 2005/85/EC) in June 2013. This instrument, which enters into force in June 2015, creates new tools to prevent abuse of the asylum system. For example, it limits an applicant’s right to remain in a country if their second asylum application does not contain new elements compared to a previous one or if the second application is submitted to prevent the applicant’s imminent removal. Under the directive, limits to the right to remain can also be applied to applicants who have submitted a third or subsequent asylum application. These rules do not constitute an exception to the principle of non-refoulement, which must always be respected.
The European Parliament and the Council also amended the Visa Regulation (Regulation 539/2001) in December 2013, introducing a visa suspension mechanism for temporarily suspending third-country nationals’ visa-free status under exceptional circumstances. This mechanism may be applied only as a temporary measure and can only be triggered in an emergency. No Member State has yet requested activation of the visa suspension mechanism.
4.Next steps
The overwhelming majority of citizens from the visa-free Western Balkan countries are bona fide travellers with legitimate grounds to travel to the EU. The visa-free travel scheme has fulfilled its purpose: it has strengthened people-to-people contact between the Western Balkans and the EU, including with diaspora communities in the Member States, enhanced business opportunities and cultural exchanges, and enabled the visa-free countries’ citizens to get to know the EU better. All of the Western Balkan countries concerned have expressed a desire to continue implementing the reforms necessary to maintain their citizens’ visa-free travel status.
Yet, asylum abuse has continued to afflict the visa-free scheme since visa liberalisation. The situation remains untenable and requires reforms in both the visa-free Western Balkan countries and in the most-affected EU Member States and Schengen-associated countries.
The Commission urges each Western Balkan country to back up its political commitment to visa-free travel with effective policies on the ground. Each visa-free country must be able to show a sustainable downward trend in the overall asylum intake.
The Commission recommends that each visa-free Western Balkan country continues to:
1. Increase targeted assistance to minority populations, in particular those of Roma ethnicity, aiming to improve their long-term socio-economic integration via educational, employment and vocational training programmes, including by implementing national strategies and using domestic assistance, supported by available EU assistance and bilateral assistance offered by EU Member States;
2. Strengthen operational cooperation and information exchange with neighbouring states, EU Member States and Schengen-associated countries, the European Commission and, as appropriate, Frontex, Europol and EASO, in the fields of border management, migration, asylum and readmission, in accordance with EU and national legislation;
3. Investigate facilitators of irregular migration and prosecute those who enable the abuse of the visa-free scheme, in close cooperation with the law enforcement authorities of EU Member States, Schengen-associated countries and Europol;
4. In strict compliance with citizens’ fundamental rights, strengthen border controls and develop closer cooperation with EU Member States that have a direct responsibility for managing the EU’s external borders;
5. Enhance targeted information and awareness campaigns aimed at further clarifying to citizens the rights and obligations of visa-free travel, including information on liability for any abuse of rights under the visa-free scheme.
The Commission also recommends that those EU Member States and Schengen-associated countries that have faced the largest inflows of unfounded asylum applications from the Western Balkans consider taking additional action in the following areas:
1. Where appropriate, consider streamlining asylum procedures for the citizens of the five visa-free Western Balkan countries, including by having more staff assess asylum cases in peak periods or by establishing an accelerated procedure that enables the swift processing of applications at peak times or for citizens of particular countries. Where appropriate, consider using the safe country of origin concept as part of reforming domestic asylum procedures;
2. Consider a more cautious and selective use of cash benefits, such as pocket money and financial return assistance, to reduce the financial incentives for asylum abuse;
3. Organise high-level visits to the countries concerned and information campaigns, in cooperation with local NGOs and municipalities, to inform citizens about the rights and obligations of visa-free travel, using print and electronic media;
4. Strengthen operational cooperation and information exchange, including through liaison officers, with the authorities of the countries concerned.
The Commission will continue to assess the implementation of these measures through the present post-visa liberalisation monitoring mechanism and will report to the European Parliament and the Council in 2015.
5.Statistics
Figure 1: Asylum applications made by Western Balkan visa-free nationals to EU and Schengen-associated countries
Figure 2: Total asylum applications in the EU and Schengen-associated countries, with the Western Balkan share
Figure 3: Seasonality of Western Balkan asylum applications since 2009
Figure 4: Top EU and Schengen-associated country recipients of Western Balkan asylum applications
Figure 5: Western Balkan breakdown of asylum seekers in EU and Schengen-associated countries
Figure 6: Propensity of Western Balkan citizens to seek asylum in EU and Schengen-associated countries16
Figure 7: Top EU and Schengen-associated country destinations for Western Balkan asylum applicants
Figure 8: Recognition rate of Western Balkan asylum applications in EU and Schengen‑associated countries
1Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001.
2The reference numbers of the previous reports are as follows: SEC(2011) 695, SEC(2011) 1570, COM(2012) 472, and COM(2013) 836.
3 COM(2014) 700.
4Source: Eurostat.
5Source: Eurostat.
6Source: Eurostat.
7Gesetz zur Einstufung weiterer Staaten als sichere Herkunftsstaaten und zur Erleichterung des Arbeitsmarktzugangs für Asylbewerber und geduldete Ausländer, 5 November 2014.
8The recognition rate is calculated as the number of positive decisions (on refugee status, subsidiary protection or humanitarian status) as a percentage of the total number of first-instance decisions.
9Frontex, Post-Visa Liberalisation Monitoring Mechanism, Report No 46.
10Frontex, Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis 2014.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
11These issues are described in detail in EASO’s Asylum Applicants from the Western Balkans, 2013. In Albania, actual instances of blood feud are very rare, yet this phenomenon is still used by some as a pretext to lodge asylum applications.
12Frontex, Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis, 2014.
13Frontex, Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis, 2014.
14Frontex, Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis, 2014.
15Frontex, Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis, 2014.
16Calculated as the number of asylum applications in the EU and Schengen-associated countries divided by population size.
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