How do Member States regulate the mobility and residence of persons already granted international protection status in another Member State? What are the appliable rules for transfer of responsibility of a beneficiary of international protection? A new inform of the European Migration Network dedicated to the secondary movement of the beneficiaries of international protection provides an insight to these questions.
Secondary movement in this context refers to the onward migration of beneficiaries of international protection from a first State to a second one, to apply for international protection or to take up legal residence in the second Member State on other grounds (e.g. employment or study). The reasons for moving to another Member State vary and may include insufficient living conditions and available housing; the presence of ethnic and family networks in another Member State; lack of opportunities for integration; difficult access to work and study and limited access to healthcare and social security in the first State.
The inform Secondary movements of beneficiaries of international protection firstly examines how Member States regulate the transfer of responsibility for a beneficiary of international protection from the first State to the second State. Such transfer of responsibility for issuing of a travel document for refugees is understood as per Article 28 of the Geneva Convention on Refugees and Article 2 of European Agreement on Transfer of Responsibility for Refugees (EATRR). Secondly, the inform explores the situation where beneficiaries of international protection, already recognised in a first State, lodge applications for international protection in a second State.
This inform covers all persons with either a refugee status or subsidiary protection who are legally present in a second State because they have obtained, or are in the process of obtaining, a valid residence permit, or have made a further application for international protection.