This is always the case anywhere in the world and is perfectly reasonable due to risks associated with making these journeys.
Let's say you need to get somewhere for a better life, to flee war, organized crime, corruption, death threats due to political problems, emigration due to environmental crisis, famine, drought, whatever may be the cause.
The journey has a very high chance of failure, arrest, violence, accidents, etc, and many refugees need to try repeatedly to emigrate until they succeed. Would you take your entire family on this very likely to fail journey where they could be imprisoned and abused or be injured/die, or would you have them wait until you succeed in acquiring refugee status and thus can bring them over safely with your legal status already settled.