What appears to be the most promising and essential next steps under the circumstances? Why the urgent need to start designing a faster and simpler procedure right now? What are some of the upshots of such a policy being shaped, approved, and implemented that will have a positive effect on the E.U countries?
- Faster and simpler procedures. Many of the bottlenecks result from understaffing, a lack of equipment, and employees overloaded by the overcomplicated current procedures. Shorter processing times and simpler procedures will benefit the immigration agencies’ personnel and local administration while facilitating the refugees’ integration (they will be able to travel, work, study, and hold bank accounts in their name).
- Relaxed criteria to qualify for extra protection. There is no need to require embassy-issued certificates, seeing as these requests are futile. For instance, the government seeks technical ways to disenfranchise the “foreign agents” by banning certain activities for them. Extra protection should be expanded to include the Russian dissidents who have voiced their disapproval of the dictatorial regimes.
- Unified E.U.-wide standards. Despite the E.U. legislating the issuance of standardized documents (Art. 25, Directive 2011/95/EU), the practical implementation varies considerably. There is a need for standardized regulations formulated and approved by the EUAA or EUCO to unify waiting times (e.g., processing times of no longer than two months) and minimize the scope of evidence required to prove the applicant’s impossibility to obtain a new passport (it may even be reduced to an application and declaration of one’s disagreement with the policies pursued by the Russian/Belarusian governments). This will shrink the national discrepancies and significantly increase the number of positive decisions.
- Emergency procedures for Russian/Belarusian nationals. In case the two regimes initiate a sweeping I.D. reissuance ban, the E.U. should have an emergency mechanism in place. This could be a standardized travel document for official E.U. residents who ended up without a passport through no fault of their own. Alternative, it could be a document issued by the embassies and consulates of other E.U. countries or in a centralized way (similarly to Laissez-Passer). Experts are already advocating for the issuance of travel documents to the E.U.-based Russians if their new passport requests are denied by the embassies. The implementation of these recommendation will help protect government critics and political exiles from persecution as the regime will lose the opportunity to control and restrain them by leveraging their status abroad.
- Personalized approach and human rights. Any revisions and changes should be predicated on the idea that a travel document is not a privilege but an individual’s inalienable right. Refusals should be extraordinarily rare and only based on reasonable security concerns or a proven attempted scam. For stateless persons, it is the only way to finally obtain an I.D. The governments are advised to reconsider the additional stipulations to the 1954 Convention. For example, Germany still enforces on one such stipulation to Art. 27 on the issuance of documents to stateless persons, which is at odds with the best interests of human rights advocacy.
The Europe-wide system of travel document issuance will be a vital way to protect the refugees and stateless persons by allowing them the right to free travel alongside other individuals living in the E.U. But the experience of the past few years has revealed both the significance thereof (hundreds of thousands of immigrants were granted these I.D.’s) and it weaknesses (sluggishness and red tape). In the face of the potentially coming new challenges, such as a mass wave of immigration or political exiles stripped of their documents by the undemocratic governments, European government should embrace a proactive stance. The standardization, heightened resourcefulness, and the political will to support Vladimir Putin critics and other political exiles through a faster issuance of travel documents will be an immense contribution to the human rights cause and a show of solidarity. The E.U. should exhibit more flexibility to make use of the current procedures, including to set up simpler and fast-tracked programs for accepting the politically persecuted exiles and providing them with travel documents in due time. On top of being a huge humanitarian step, it will help step up security Europe-wide. After all, legalized immigrants may be the democracies’ indispensable allies in a bid to counter the authoritarian regimes. Appendix 1 summarizes the current legislation for the E.U./Schengen Area countries on a nation-by-nation basis. That includes current legal frameworks, travel document eligibility criteria, issuance statistics for ~2023–early 2025, average processing times, and a share of refusals. Besides, it assesses the general trends and potential challenges arising from a surge in applications, e.g., from the Russians whose representation in Europe has risen since the Ukraine war started.