MEPs vote on the humanitarian visas in the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). Statement by Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D,ES), rapporteur. Results from the vote: 37 votes in favour, 10 against and 3 abstentions.

Brussels

vote

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

Immigration (T2)

LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Juan Fernando (S&D, ES)

death of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea (T)

visa policy (T)

Asylum policy (T2)

legal migration (T)

humanitarian aid (T)

Vote on the humanitarian visas: extracts from the vote, statement by Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), rapporteur

Voting session at the LIBE EP Committee, atmosphere before the vote. 

Chair of the LIBE Committee Claude MORAES opens the vote, Rapporteur voting, shots during the vote and final vote 

Final vote: 37 votes in favour, 10 against and 3 abstentions

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, We have talked for years about the refugee crisis. We have shown indignation, sadness, desolation. We have denounced it as a shame. The deaths in the Mediterranean, the tragic balance that amounts to about 30,000, the most modest estimate, and of those who, having risked their lives and survived that nightmare, have managed to obtain some kind of asylum in the European Union or humanitarian protection, 95 percent of those arrived here irregularly. Why? The reason is very simple: because they had no chance to do it regularly. Now it's time to answer to that.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR  (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, What does not make sense is that we complain that those who obtain asylum have arrived here irregularly. When we continue closing all doors for them to do it regularly, when they flee from despair, because then we are throwing them into the hands of the mafias that traffic with people and the infinite exploitation of their most basic human rights, that occurs continuously on the routes from the heart of Africa to the European Union through the Mediterranean.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, And therefore the European Parliament calls for a European instrument available to the Member States with certain shared bases, which is also part of the European mandate to have an integrated system of management of external borders for management of migration flows and management of asylum claims with common instruments. The humanitarian visa does not exhaust the necessary response, but at least it opens a window of hope for those who otherwise risk everything and many times will lose everything trying to reach the European Union to request some kind of humanitarian protection fleeing the despair.

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR  (S&amp;D , ES), Rapporteur, 90% of those who survived and claimed for humanitarian protection of whatever kind or asylum or subsidiary protection made it here irregularly. But there is a good reason for it. They were not given a single chance to make it here regularly. That is precisely the aim and the point of the humanitarian visa instrument. Be a part of the overall response which is needed and to make sense to stand up to the values of the European Union which is needed. And for the legal mandate of the European Law which sets forth that we should have a common management of the external borders of the European Union, we should have a common European Asylum system and we should have a common management of the migration fluxes of the European Union. It is not the only instrument. It is not the only answer. But at least it is a step forward. It is a window of opportunity for those who are ready to risk their lives and the lives of their beloved, for the sake of fleeing from nightmares.