No safe haven: The EU's refugee policy

Civil war, political persecution or dire living and working conditions are forcing people to leave their homes to look for protection elsewhere. Many flee within their home countries or turn to neighboring states. Some of them make it to the European Union. They're in such a desperate situation that they are willing to put their lives in danger for a better future.

Migrant numbers on Italy's coasts are higher than ever before. According to authorities, some 68,000 people have arrived in Italy or were saved by the "Mare Nostrum" marine operation just this year. Numbers are likely to skyrocket further since the waters of the Mediterranean Sea are rather calm this time of year.

After catastrophes on the open sea, EU politicians have repeatedly demanded to put an end to smuggling rings and to improve the bloc's external borders with the help of modern technology. But they haven't yet agreed on how to distribute refugees throughout the EU in a manner that's fair. While the 28 EU states negotiate, those in need suffer.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." The EU has - after years of hemming and hawing - adopted the Common European Asylum System. That's meant to align national standards to create a fair and Europe-wide application process - as well as solidarity when it comes to taking in those refugees.

About 430,000 applications for asylum have been filed in 2013 in the EU - the highest number since 1992. Some 65 percent of the applications were rejected. Just 15 percent were given asylum - meaning they were given protection and refugee status. The remaining 20 percent only received a temporary residence permit to stay in the EU.

The EU is trying to walk the fine line between internal security and humanitarian responsibility. The primary influx of refugees are concentrated in the countries unable to control immigration at the bloc's external borders on their own. That's why they receive technical support and staff from the EU's external borders agency, Frontex, whose operations are highly controversial.

Frontex acts under orders of the national authorities. This is supposed to change soon, as the agency has repeatedly faced accusations of rejecting refugees at EU borders as instructed by single states, refusing to help people on a ship in distress and pushing away crowded and nonseaworthy ships so that they return to international waters.

Housing facilities and refugees' rights vary greatly from country to country. In some countries, illegal immigrants are detained and sent to prison. It also depends on the member state in terms of which criteria refugees have to meet in order to obtain refugee status. The EU is aiming to align refugees' rights as well as living and working conditions.

The Hal Far open center in Malta was set up to provide shelter for droves of illegal immigrants. The country, with some 400,000 people, has been criticized for being unable to cope with illegal immigrants. Just in the last quarter of 2013, about 300 people applied for asylum there. In relation to population ratio, it's the second highest number of applications in the EU after Sweden.

Malta, Italy and Greece have been fined because asylum seekers were suffering from bad conditions in prison. If a country massively violates human rights, people can bring the issue to the European Court of Human Rights. The court has, for instance, put a ban on Greek deportations.

About 50,000 asylum applications to the EU were filed by people from Syria in 2013. This picture shows Syrian refugees in Bulgaria. In the past three years, more than 140,000 people have died in the country's raging civil war, according to the UN. Asylum seekers from Russia (41,000) and Afghanistan (26,000) make up the second and third largest group in the EU.

People from Russia are allowed to travel to the EU on a visa and then roam freely within Europe. After their visa has expired, some of them opt against returning to their home country, instead applying for asylum. They're fleeing from political persecution and torture.

It will be a while until the Common European Asylum System, with better protection standards for refugees, will be put in place. Human rights organizations also criticize that asylum seekers are still being imprisoned - and that they can be deported quickly under fast-track asylum procedures even if their home countries are not considered safe for them.