The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) published a policy paper examining legal and policy developments affecting asylum applicants' access to the right to work in EU Member States (MS), and the challenges they face in realising this right.

Drawing from an analysis of 19 country reports within the Asylum Information Database (AIDA), the paper identifies key obstacles, highlights good practices, and provides recommendations to MS and the European Commission (EC) to promote the right to work for asylum applicants.

The paper identifies the following obstacles to employment for asylum seekers:

• deterrent reception policies
• lack of or insufficient implementation of legal obligations
• excessive administrative requirements
• practical challenges, namely language barriers, lack of recognition of qualifications, and limited access to vocational training
• discrimination

The recommendations to MS made by the paper include:

• MS should direct efforts towards alleviating administrative burdens related to access to the labour market, such as the need to request a work permit and limitations on the maximum days of work per year, to ease the recruitment procedures for asylum applicants. 
• MS should invest more in the asylum procedure to eliminate delays and administrative barriers to registering asylum claims and to decrease the lengthy duration. 
• MS should reconsider the dispersal policy, which leads to housing the asylum applicants in remote areas with no transportation facilities and frequent movements from one centre to another. 
• MS should address the language barrier by providing quality general and job-specific language courses free of charge from day one and should facilitate asylum applicants’ attendance at vocational training
• MS should strengthen or construct multi-stakeholder partnerships, including people with an asylum applicant background, private sector, labour unions, chambers of commerce, CSOs and universities at all levels of policy-making, implementation, and evaluation to address challenges regarding accessing the vocational training, recognition of qualification, and administrative barriers (including opening bank accounts).
• MS should take proactive steps to combat racial and religious prejudice, which hinders access to the right to work, by utiliaing established EU tools and resources.
• MS authorities should provide and disseminate comprehensive information regarding the labour market and labour rights for asylum applicants, including on how to join a union, and ensure that complaint mechanisms are readily accessible to them.

The recommendations to the EC made by the paper include:

• The EC should equip the Talent Pool with tools to facilitate the recruitment of TCNs, including asylum applicants and refugees already in EU territory, and should work towards eliminating structural barriers, including the recognition of qualifications.
• The EC should encourage MS to apply the EC recommendation on the recognition of qualifications of TCNs by sharing good practices and tailored support under the Technical Support Instrument to reform the national systems and following the implementation of existing tools.
• The EC should extend the trend of digitalising job searches and matching for asylum applicants, drawing insights from successful practices in Ukraine, where bureaucratic hurdles for asylum applicants were effectively reduced.
• The EC should maximise funding opportunities, including within the AMIF Thematic Facility, for civil society organisations, refugee-led organisations and social partners to support their activities, eliminating the challenges mentioned above in accessing the labour market and in their activities of supporting and defending the labour rights of asylum-seekers, such as within the framework of the European Partnership for Integration.
• The EC should support expanding good practices to facilitate labour market integration, including recognition of qualifications and quality and tailored language and vocational courses for all asylum applicants and refugees.

View the full list of obstacles identified and recommendations made in the policy paper online, or find them in the document attached below.