Reply to the 13th Report on the Activities of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration

Resolution 342 (1967)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly Debate on 27th January 1967 (24th Sitting) (see Doc. 2099,Doc. 2099, report of the Committee on Population and Refugees). Text adopted by the Assembly on 27th January 1967 (24th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having examined the 13th report on the activities of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration ;

2. Recalling Recommendation 462 (1966) in which it asked the Committee of Ministers to request the ICEM to make available its good offices on behalf of European national refugees from former colonial or mandated territories ;

3. Reaffirming its conviction that, where possible, such European refugees should be discouraged, on humanitarian and economic grounds, from returning temporarily to the countries of origin in which they do not wish to settle permanently and that with this end in view they should be assisted to travel direct to the receiving countries of their choice ;

4. Convinced that this European problem can be solved in respect of both transport and resettlement, by an intergovernmental body specialising in European migration ;

5. Noting that the great majority of Council of Europe member countries are also members of the ICEM ;

6. Considering the operational activities of the ICEM whose work the Assembly has followed for many years and that it is appropriate to use the employment facilities of that Organisation to promote the resettlement of European refugees, if possible within the framework of existing bilateral agreements between European countries and countries overseas ;

7. Assisting and supporting in this way the work of the various government departments responsible for such matters in Council of Europe member countries,

8. Resolves to instruct its members, in particular members of the Working Party on Parliamentary and Public Relations and the Committee on Population and Refugees, to take or resume whatever steps are appropriate to persuade their respective Governments and Parliaments to assist European national refugees in pursuance of Recommendation 462 (1966).