The Overseas Development Institute have said that European governments must now adopt a new approach to how they deal with refugee arrivals. Instead of focusing on control and deterring migration, the report from ODI states that governments must "have a pragmatic and effective" solution to manage it better.
The ODI have listed several solutions to the problem, which should include facilitation and increase in legal pathways so that they can monitor and more effectively manage flows of migrants.
The ODI told Sputnik that at present they currently have no data on how migrants coming via covert routes learn about them.
#Europe must manage #migration better by increasing legal pathways. Our new report: https://t.co/Or7SlJK56Lhttps://t.co/8kSqerVXS1
— ODI (@ODIdev) 16 September 2016
But previous research by the ODI has found that social networks and information flows strongly influence migration decisions. There are issues around whether these routes are potentially more dangerous than others.
"The various covert routes differ greatly in their mortality rate. For example, traveling overland concealed in vehicles will be more dangerous than overstaying a visa. However, there is data to support the fact that as various sea routes across the Mediterranean have closed, the new ones that have opened up have higher mortality rates," a spokesperson for ODI told Sputnik.
The ODI said that many refugees who come to the EU find it difficult to claim refugee status and apply for asylum.
"We have a number of people arriving in Europe whose journeys we know little about. Legal migration pathways would allow governments to monitor and more effectively manage these flows. It would allow them to make pragmatic decisions about quotas, skills gaps, housing costs, and would enhance their benefit to the economy. These pathways can be tailored to different countries and sit alongside the global asylum system that continues to guarantee protection for vulnerable refugees," a spokesperson for ODI told Sputnik.
The solution to all of this, according to ODI, is for European governments to facilitate and increase legal pathways so that they can monitor and more effectively manage flows of refugees and migrants.
