Reducing Irregular Migration Flows through EU External Action

Irregular immigration is emerging as a threat to the political stability of the EU. The EU’s asylum and immigration system has been overly tolerant towards irregular migration and not attuned enough to legal migration, particularly with regard to skilled migration. Furthermore, countries in the vicinity of the EU, particularly in North Africa, have yet to develop functioning asylum and migration systems. And despite a dramatic decrease in the number of migrants and refugees coming to Europe, the need remains to instil in the European public a sense that the EU border is properly guarded and that the number of illegal border crossings—as one aspect of irregular migration—is being reduced. In the short to medium term, the EU should help to ensure the protection of the refugees who are hosted in other countries. It should provide the requisite financial and political support to the hosting governments in order to ensure the basic welfare of migrants. The EU should resettle the most vulnerable refugees through legal channels at the expense of irregular migration movements. Where individuals are granted asylum following interception at sea, they should not be allowed to settle in the EU. Instead, the Union should negotiate with non-EU (‘third’) countries about accepting these individuals. Finally, the EU’s external border needs to be vigilantly policed in order to increase public confidence in the EU’s migration policy. As part of this recommendation, the EU should continue assisting third-country coastguards to undertake search and rescue operations, and to bring the rescued individuals back to their own countries. Over the long term, the EU should set itself the goal of enlarging the area of migration and asylum governance by incentivising non-EU countries to adopt asylum legislation in order to fulfil their obligations under the Refugee Convention of 1951 or equivalent international instruments.