Humanitarian visas are one of the tools that countries can use to enable people in need to access international protection legally and safely.

In its 2016 resolution, Parliament already called on Member States to 'make use of any existing possibilities to provide for humanitarian visas', while the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee tried unsuccessfully to address the issue as part of the review of the Visa Code. Consequently, on 16 October 2018, the LIBE committee adopted a legislative own-initiative report on humanitarian visas. It called on the Commission to submit by March 2019 a proposal for a regulation establishing a European humanitarian visa giving access to European territory for the sole purpose of submitting an application for international protection in the Member State issuing the visa.