Visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Armenia has entered into force since January 1, 2014, which enables the RA citizens to receive visa to EU countries more quickly (instead of the previously indefinite term, the answer is given within 10 days, in some cases, up to 30 days), cheap (instead of the previously 60 euro, now 35 euros, while free of charge for some group of people, including children under the age of 12; pensioners; participants in international sports competitions; schoolchildren and university students for the purposes of study or educational training; journalists leaving for media coverage; members of national and regional governments and of Constitutional and Supreme courts; close relatives – spouse, children (including adopted), parents (including custodians), grandparents or grandchildren – of citizens of Armenia legally residing in the territory of the Member States, or citizens of the Union residing in the territory of the Member State of which they are nationals; persons participating in scientific, academic, cultural or artistic activities, including university and other exchange programs; representatives of civil society leaving for seminars and conferences, etc.), and easily (the number of required documents has been significantly reduced). At the same time, readmission agreement between the EU and Armenia began to act, according to which our countries has assumed the commitment to return the illegal immigrants identified in the European Union countries (strictly in theory, we can also return illegally settled EU citizens from here). Recently, at the seminar on visa facilitation and readmission organized by the Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation and the Open Society Foundations-Armenia, an opinion was voiced a couple of times that Europe has employed the method of a “biscuit and whip”. On the one hand, it had toughened the flow of illegal entrants in Europe, by readmission contract, on the other hand, it has facilitated issuance of legally and short-term visas. Do you want to come to Europe? Very well, please, but if you try to stay illegally, we will quickly return you back. However, as mentioned by international and local experts, if Europe is quite consistent with the readmission issue, it is not true with the visa facilitation issue. According to the monitoring conducted by the Center for Globalization, the German Embassy to Armenia, whose consular section is servicing for applicants to receive visa to travel to Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden, about 10 percent of visa applications is rejected. Polish Consulate that is servicing for traveler to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland, about 14.5% of the cases are rejected. The Italian consul, who in addition to the applicants leaving for his country, also examines the applications of those leaving for Malta and Finland, rejects only 7.2 percent of applications. Consulate of Lithuania, which is servicing for the majority of countries, Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Denmark, and Estonia, as well as the French Consulate, including Iceland and Portugal, did not provide information on how many rejections are registered. Naturally, these data relate to the period prior to this agreement. However, on average, pursuant to several different studies, in the last two or three years, EU countries consulates reject 8% of visa applications received by RA citizens, 8% of visa applications requested by Azerbaijan citizens, 13% – by Georgian citizens, 2% – by Ukrainian citizens, 1% – by the RF, and 0.5% – by Belarus citizens. Such friendly attitude towards Belarus was explained by the fact that Belarusians mainly turn to the Polish embassy, which almost never rejects, because Belarusians are connected with Poland by countless family relations. If 23,700 people from Armenia had left for EU in 2009, then in 2012, the number amounted to 35,000 people. The number of Azerbaijani has increased to 50,000 from 31,300. The number of people leaving from Belarus has been double – 700 thousand from 370 thousand, from Russia – 6 million from 3 million, and from Ukraine – 1.3 million from 850 thousand. The number of Georgians has not been significantly changed. If in 2009, 50,600 Georgians has left for the EU, in 2012 – the number was only 60 thousand. Interestingly, in 2010, Europeans rejected visa issuance to Albania and Kosovo citizens by 16% and 24%, respectively. It was especially stressed that the visa facilitation has had a positive impact, and has not increased the number of illegal entrants to the EU countries, and has not made the security more risky. As to the admission, prior to this agreement, Armenia already had bilateral readmission agreements with many European countries. According to the State Migration Services data, until 2014, over four years, Armenia had received 100 readmission applications on 147 persons. These applications were received not only from European countries but also from Russia. Only this year, in the scale of four months, Armenia had received readmission applications only from Sweden – 10 applications for 31 persons. In other words, signing of the readmission agreement does not become a reason for having a huge flow of migrants to Armenia illegally left for the EU. According to SMS data, 6000 applications per year are submitted from Armenia to the EU countries for obtaining a refugee status. If earlier, these applications were pending for years, now the process takes only 15 days. If they do not see any substantial reason, they refuse and return to Armenia promptly. Armenia is considered to be a safe country, and people in Europe known very well that there is no war here, both civil and with external forces, the crime rate is not high, and only the people’s desire to leave their own country to live in another, more prosperous country in the status of a refugee, is not a sufficient substantiation to grant this opportunity to them.
Melania BARSEGHYAN
