The lack of legal ways to travel to Europe obliges migrants escaping from poverty, conflicts, persecution and environmental disasters to embark on extremely long, dangerous and costly journeys in order to reach Europe through “irregular” ways. Once in Europe, they can apply for international protection but they cannot choose where to do it. According to European Union law, it is the country through which they enter in the European Union that is responsible for registering them, processing their asylum claims and providing assistance during the asylum process. This has never really worked in practice as migrants have historically tried to find ways to continue their journeys towards central and northern Europe.

Migrant movements became ever more evident during the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of migrants travelled across Europe, refusing to stay in the first country of entry. Since then, European Union’s institutions and member states have increased their efforts to control and limit the mobility of migrants. So-called “hotspot” facilities were set up in border points in the Greek Aegean islands and in southern Italy in order to stop all newly arrived migrants, register them and collect their fingerprints. Relocation schemes gave the possibility to restricted groups of migrants to be transferred away from the first country of arrival to another member state. Finally, some member states reintroduced border controls within the Schengen area in order to prevent migrants from travelling within Europe.