Visa opens the way to Europe

Recently published a report on what is currently being done by the European Court to investigate cases in the European Union countries that are granted travel visas if they are threatened with torture or inhuman treatment, and this may help the refugee court to obtain legal access to Europe.

The majority of people who arrive as refugees from the Middle East or North Africa have only the Mediterranean route if they want to cross into Europe. The road through land is currently closed because of wars or closed borders, but few know that there is theoretically the possibility of legal travel to EU countries. This possibility has been available since 13 July 2009 in the European Visa Grant Act.

Visa for humanitarian reasons:

The so-called humanitarian visa, anyone who has nothing to do with the European Union can request it by applying at the embassy of the European country concerned. Those who apply for this visa will automatically enjoy the immunity of European basic rights, which also allow the application of asylum.

Law experts such as Stefan Kessler of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Berlin, as well as European Parliament member Barbara Lochbiler point out that there is a problem with the human visa. This visa has a validity of only 90 days and there is no specific humanitarian basis for granting the visa.

Until now, EU countries have been free to grant this kind of humanitarian visa. Conditions have been very difficult. The applicant must prove that he is at risk in his life if he does not receive a visa. He only flees in hopes of improving his living conditions. , He says, is not entitled to a visa for humanitarian reasons, according to law experts, and it is always relevant to the situation before the authorities.

The case before the European Court:

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A Syrian couple with three children who came in October 2016 in the Lebanese capital of Beirut at the Belgian embassy asked for this kind of visa for humanitarian reasons. By that document, the family can leave Aleppo to apply for asylum in Belgium. The family explained its position that it was oppressed because of its Orthodox Christian belief and that a member of the family had already been beaten and tortured. The border between Syria and Lebanon has been closed, so there is no chance of registering in a neighboring country as a refugee.

The Belgian authorities have turned to the European Court to clarify the situation and find a solution. Even if the case is urgent, it will take at least four weeks for the European Supreme Court to issue a final judgment. .

Proposals of the Attorney General to the Court:

But before the final verdict, the prosecutor of the European Court, strongly influenced by Paolo Mingusi, declared his legal position that the EU Member State and its authorities were obliged to issue a humanitarian visa if there was a risk to the applicant's body and life.

Article 4 of the European Charter of Human Rights prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Attorney General favors granting refugees from dangerous countries such as Syria the possibility of legalizing humanitarian visas to benefit from the European asylum system. However, the Attorney General's proposals remain non-binding. In the European Court case regardless of the final request of the Attorney General.

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The court's expected decision may trigger many things that have failed so far, and this is what many human rights organizations like New York-based Human Rights Watch hope. Two years ago, plans to set up asylum centers on African land were discussed, where asylum applications could be decided, not only in the granting of visas. But these schemes failed in the bud, because the European countries did not understand each other.

Kay Heilbroner, director of the Center for Research on the Law of Foreigners and European Asylum in the German city of Constance, believes that the other judges do not share the opinion of the public prosecutor in the European Court and explain his position that the visa system will be unable to work because the embassies are unable to verify the risks to the applicant .

"If a credible explanation of the applicant's suffering from persecution is sufficient, all refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq or North African countries will have access to a humanitarian visa, which is unimaginable, and therefore the European Court's decision is unlikely to be positive," Heilbroner said.