Banning humanitarian visas, supporting relocations: The European Commission’s veil of Maya

It is well known that at EU level the ‘first-arrival’ criterion provided for by Regulation 604/2013 (“Dublin III Regulation”) is proving controversial. In an effort to tackle (at least in part) this issue, the European Commission and the European Parliament engaged in receiving potential asylum seekers through two different paths. This change of direction might prima facie appear as a response to the EU and its Member States’ urgent need to respect human rights. Yet, at a closer look, these institutions are primarily supporting their own programme, with the self-evident result that neither a legislation on humanitarian visas nor on common provisions on resettlements have been adopted so far. As a result, the risk of death along migration routes is still a persisting reality.