EU wants more legal migration from Pakistan

The European Union needs to make legal travel easier for Pakistanis and address obstacles faced by genuine travelers, the bloc's migration chief has said, calling Pakistan's nearly 50% Schengen visa refusal rate "too much" and acknowledging difficulties in securing visa appointments. Magnus Brunner, the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview during his first visit to Pakistan that the EU needed to improve legal migration pathways while Pakistan also had to improve the quality of documents submitted with visa applications. "We have to do a better job there as a European Union," Brunner said, referring to visa access. "The quality of the documents to get a visa [needs to] improve, to be diplomatic, because this has actually led to refusal rates of Schengen visas in Pakistan [of] almost 50%, which is too much. So we have to work on both sides, I think." During his visit, Brunner held talks with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials, with migration, legal mobility, border management and human smuggling high on the agenda. Brunner said cooperation between Pakistan and the EU had helped bring down irregular migration significantly. "The numbers are good, they are going down. We see a decrease of Pakistanis coming illegally to the European Union of more than 50%, which is great news," he said. Separately, Pakistani officials said during Brunner's visit that irregular migration from Pakistan to Europe had fallen by 64% over the past 18 months. Brunner said bringing irregular migration under control was important for creating greater political space within Europe for legal migration. "It is so important for the public perception to get the illegal part right in order to give also more room for a serious discussion on legal pathways," he said. Asked about difficulties faced by Pakistanis in even securing appointments to apply for Schengen visas, Brunner acknowledged the problem. "Sometimes it's a bit frustrating, I suppose, for Pakistanis who want to travel legally to the European Union," he said. He stressed that visas remained largely the competence of individual EU member states but said the European Commission was trying through its visa strategy to improve coordination and make the process quicker. Brunner said Europe also needed legal migration because of demographic changes and labour shortages. "The people get older each year, and that's why we need, of course, legal migration for our labour markets," he said. On the EU's Talent Partnership with Pakistan, Brunner acknowledged that its potential had yet to be fully realised. "We haven't achieved enough, I think," he said, adding that one of the reasons for his visit was to explore how the skills of young Pakistanis could be better matched with the needs of European economies. He cited Italy as an example of an EU member state offering opportunities to foreign workers but acknowledged that other countries could do more. "There is room for improvement for other member states," he said. Brunner said the challenge for Europe was to match skills available in countries such as Pakistan with jobs required by European economies. He also praised Pakistan's efforts to develop legal labour pathways with other countries, citing its arrangements with South Korea. "In general, I think Pakistan does a very good job in strategically looking into legal pathways all over the world, but also towards the European Union," he said. At the same time, the commissioner said Europe had tightened its approach towards irregular migration following years of political pressure over the issue. He said irregular migration into the EU overall had fallen by around 55% during the past two years following reforms. Brunner identified the routes from Pakistan and Bangladesh through Gulf countries, Egypt and Libya towards Italy and Greece as particularly dangerous. "What we see at the moment is that the most dangerous route, where a lot of people lose their lives, is from Pakistan, Bangladesh, through the Gulf countries, to Egypt, to Libya, and from Libya to Italy and Greece," he said. He said Pakistan was playing an important role in the EU's Eastern Corridor Initiative aimed at tackling irregular migration and human smuggling along the route. "A lot of Pakistanis have lost their lives actually, and that's what it's about... to save lives," Brunner said. The commissioner also said cooperation under the EU-Pakistan readmission agreement was progressing, although there was room for improvement. "We have a readmission agreement with Pakistan which is going well. The return numbers are at 30%, around about 30%, which is in general okay, but also there, of course, room for improvement," he said. He said Pakistani authorities had given him a clear commitment that the country would take back its nationals found to be staying illegally in the EU. Brunner had a direct warning for young Pakistanis considering dangerous irregular routes to Europe. "Don't put your life into the hands of the smugglers and the human traffickers because it's very dangerous. You can lose your life and the probability of getting asylum in the European Union is almost zero," he said. "Stick to the education, the right skills, and then find the legal ways to the European Union. We are very happy to have you legally, on a legal basis, on a legal pathway." Turning to security, Brunner said terrorism in Pakistan could have implications well beyond the country and called counterterrorism a shared objective. "We do everything to support Pakistan in the fight against terrorism and also radicalisation," he said. "This is our common goal." Asked about the safety of Muslim communities in Europe amid concerns over Islamophobia and racism, Brunner pointed to the EU's internal security strategy. "I think we have to do everything to keep the people safe altogether and to avoid a misuse of religion, which then leads to radicalisation and extremism," he said. Brunner also praised Pakistan's diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States, saying Islamabad had demonstrated its importance as an intermediary. "Pakistan has shown that the role of Pakistan is really important. And to be the middleman between those two, I think, is really important," he said. "I trust totally the Pakistani government. They're doing everything they can to bring peace and this is what we as Europeans, of course, support."

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