EU policy pushes refugees to illegal travel routes

For hundreds of thousands of refugees without Schengen visas... the only way to continue their journey is with smugglers.

The 2003 Dublin III agreement said that anyone seeking asylum in Europe must apply for such in the first EU country in which they arrive.

This means that Greece and Italy, as first ports of arrival from migrants coming from either Turkey or Libya, take in a disproportionate number of migrants.

Furthermore, many migrants choose not to claim asylum in Greece or Italy, where conditions are poor even for Greeks and Italians.

Deportations to Greece have largely been suspended since a 2011 European Court of Human Rights ruling said conditions there amounted to a systematic breach of human rights.

Into the hands of traffickers 

While conditions in Greece are not fit for mass migration, hundreds of thousands of those who arrive in Greece and Italy are only given temporary permits of 3-6 months to stay in the country. With no Schengen visas to travel onwards, the only way to continue their journeys is with smugglers.

This is a point that must be known by Greece, Italy, the EU, as well as migrants themselves, for, without large scale deportations to Libya and Turkey, how else would the migrants leave the country after their residency permit ends?

In addition to the Italian "threat", Panos Kammenos, Greek defence minister, likewise "threatened" to give travel documents to those arriving in Greece - if the Eurozone permitted Greece to economically fail.

In January, hundreds of Syrians camped at Syntagma Square in Athens to demand Schengen travel documents to be able to leave the country.

They don't want us in Greece. But they won't let us leave.

"They don't want us in Greece. But they won't let us leave. We are in a place worse than a prison," said Bassel, a protester in Syntagama square.

"We can't work, we have no housing, no medical care, schools for our kids and we are running out of money."

Zakia Aqra, a researcher for the Centre for Mediterranian, Middle East and Islamic Studies, said that European policy in Greece and Italy is effectively pushing migrants into taking illegal routes to reach European nations.

Officials are fuelling the crisis, said Aqra, by not giving out visas while knowing that the vast majority of migrants arriving are attempting to reach other European destinations.

Desperate people are often tempted by smugglers, even if they have recourse to a legal route to reach a European country, by family reunification for example, knowing that it might be easier and quicker to travel illegally.

"Greece should give travel documents and let people migrate where ever they want," said Aqra. She stressed that the core problems in the Middle East and elsewhere that lead to the migration criss should be dealt with.  

Between Dublin and Schengen

Police on Italy's border with France this week forcibly removed about a hundred migrants who were stranded in the Italian city of Ventimiglia having been denied entry into France - escalating tensions between the two countries over the free movement of migrants to northern Europe.

If you don't comply with Dublin, I don't comply with Schengen

Angelino Alfano, Italy's interior minister, said that the scene was a "punch in the face to all the European countries that want to close their eyes" to the migrant crisis.

Fiorenza Picozza, researcher at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, has worked with refugees in Italy. "If you don't comply with Dublin, I don't comply with Schengen," she summarised.

Italy is also willing "turn a blind eye" to refugees escaping detention centres and passing though borders into other European countries, say analysts.

Saber Jaafari, an asylum seeker from Syria who was picked up on a boat to Italy from Libya was put in a detention centre in Italy.

However, it was "very easy to escape" within a few days, he told al-Araby al-Jadeed. Guards were easy to bribe, he said.

Fiorenza also said that Italy had been informally letting migrants pass through its borders in recent years.

Considering the extent that Italy and Greece indirectly rely on smugglers and traffickers to remove migrants from their shores and take them into northern Europe, many speculate over the levels of political corruption necessary for such a system to exist, while deliberately ignoring the operations of smuggler gangs.

This makes David Cameron's offer to deploy six British officers from the National Crime Agency to a special Europol intelligence cell in Sicily in order to "disrupt the trafficking and smuggling gangs" somewhat of a moot point - considering that any serious disruption of smuggling gangs will mean more refugees in Italy.

The offer was made after the UK finally opted out of search and rescue operations on the Mediterranean this week.

There are also multiple logistical problems with northern European countries applying the Dublin agreement.

For example, fingerprints of migrants who register in Italy are held on the Visa Information System, however, they are not permanently on the database, meaning that some who find themselves registered could wait between six months to a year - only to find their details have been removed from the system and they must consequently reapply.

Rejected asylum seekers in Sweden who are refused on the basis of their coming through a Dublin state often go into hiding for a while until their details will be removed from the database, making it virtually impossible for Sweden to send them back.

Despite all the difficulties in successfully enforcing the Dublin agreement, when it is successfully applied, it often creates painful disruptions and added difficulties in refugees' journeys.

Smugglers as a compromise?

Despite EU discussions for a quota plan to distribute refugees across Europe, for now it looks like the status quo will remain; hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving to substandard conditions in Greece and Italy, until they find smugglers to take them to travel to a better life in northern Europe.  

The smuggling industry appears to be used as a compromise between port states who would want to give their thousands of migrants visas to travel out of the country and suspend the Dublin agreement, and northern European states - who are also seeing a huge increase in refugees and do not want thousands more from southern Europe. 

Meanwhile, refugees keep losing out. 

"Every attempt I make to leave Greece costs money," said Ammar, another Syrian protester in Greece. 

"Mainly to the smugglers who try to get us across borders without papers. But how long will my money last?"