Problem of Refugees and Over-Population
Report
| Doc. 72
| 29 November 1951
1 Explanatory Memorandum
1. The Special Committee on Refugees which
met in Strasbourg on 9th and 10th November,
1951, considered the Report of the Committee
of Experts on the problem of refugees and overpopulation
communication of which to the
Assembly had been authorised by the Member
Governments of the Council of Europe. The
Committee invited the members of the Sub-
Committee on Migrant Workers of the Committee
on Social Questions to attend this meeting,
since it considered that the problem of refugees
and the problem of migrant workers
formed part of the more general problem of
over-population and that they should therefore
be examined together.
2. Your Committee wishes first of all to congratulate the Committee of Ministers for
having convened a Committee of Government
Experts consisting of persons from all Member
States who had had great experience of working
on the problem of refugees and over-population,
and for having made it possible for them
to hear the views of the expert representatives
of all those International Organisations which
are concerned with this problem in one or other
of its aspects. The following International.
Organisations collaborated in the work of the
Committee of Experts : International Labour
Organisation, International Refugee Organisation,
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, Organisation for European
Economic Co-operation : in addition a
representative of the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development attended the
meeting of 15th September, 1951 as an observer.
As a result, the Assembly now has before it
an extremely important Report, which contains
a general survey of the problem and indicates
the contribution made to its solution by the
many Organisations which are concerned.
3. Secondly, your Committee wishes to
express its deep gratitude to the Committee
of Experts, whose. Report it has studied with
the greatest interest and attention. Nevertheless,
it notes with regret that the Report in
question contains no reference to Recommendation
2, relating to the establishment of a
European Refugees Office, which was adopted
by the Assembly on 14th May, 1951.
4. Your Committee notes with particular
satisfaction that the views of the Special Committee
on Refugees and of the Committee of
Government Experts on the problem of refugees
and of over-population are identical.
In the light of the Report of the Committee of
Experts, these two problems should accordingly
be examined in future in conjunction. Your
Committee has therefore approved the suggestion
of the Committee of Experts recommending
that the Assembly should establish a General
" Committee on Population and Refugees " to
deal with these problems as a whole,
5. The Committee of Experts considers that
the field of activity defined in the constitutions
of the various existing international organisations
is on the whole wide enough to cover the
Whole range of international action, provided
that some necessary adjustments can be made.
Nevertheless, it came to the conclusion that,
in certain of its aspects at least, the problem of refugees is a specifically European problem
which should be dealt with on the basis of
general policy directives elaborated by the
Council of Europe. To this end the Committee
of Experts has recommended that a body be
established to maintain liaison between the
Consultative Assembly, on the one hand, and the
Committee of Ministers and the competent international
organisations, on the other. The terms
of reference of this body would include the
definition of the objectives of a common European
policy, and the co-ordination of the action
to be taken by Member States of the Council of
Europe, in the field of refugees and over-population.
Your Committee has approved this
suggestion and proposes that the Assembly
should recommend to the Committee of Ministers
the establishment of a " Special Liaison
Committee " with the terms of reference set out
in the Draft Recommendation.
6. The Committee of Ministers itself, in its
" Second Supplementary Report to the Consultative
Assembly suggested that, if the
recommendation of the Committee of Government
Experts to establish a Committee on
Population and Refugees within the Consultative
Assembly were accepted by the Assembly,
the method of maintaining liaison between that
Committee, the Committee of Ministers and
the international organisations concerned,
should be discussed in the Joint Committee
of the Council of Europe (
Doc. 60, page 11,
No. 2).
7. In order to meet the wishes of the Committee
of Ministers and of the Committee of
Experts as also in order to reach specific practical
solutions, the Special Committee on Refugees
proposes that the Assembly should recommend
to the Committee of Ministers the establishment
of a " Special Liaison Committee. " This
" Special Liaison Committee " would consist
of three members from the Committee on
Population and Refugees and three members
from the Committee of Ministers. It is intended
that the establishment of this " Special Liaison
Committee " shall lead to a better co-ordination
of the work of the many international organisations
dealing with refugees and over-population,
and of the action to be taken b y Member States
of the Council of Europe. The Report of the
Committee of Experts fully endorses this view.
8. Your Committee has also studied with
great interest the proposal of the Italian Experts,
submitted in the form of a memorandum
in which it is suggested that the Council of Europe might appoint a " Spécial Representative
" to maintain contact with the various
international agencies and to be responsible
for stimulating the activities of the Member
Governments of the Council of Europe in this
field. The Committee has approved this suggestion
and proposes that the Assembly should
recommend to the Committee of Ministers the
appointment of a " Special Representative "
who should be an outstanding European personality.
He would act as the permanent delegate
of the Committee of Ministers under the
general supervision of the " Special Liaison
Committee once the latter had been formed.
The appointment of this Special Representative
would make it possible to pursue a
consistent policy with regard to the problem
of refugees and over-population—a consistent
policy which is in fact essential if concrete
results are to be achieved.
9. These three modest proposals which your
Committee submits to the Assembly are to be
considered as a first step towards a practical
solution of a particularly difficult problem,
which both the Committee of Ministers and the
Committee of Experts consider an obstacle to
the full realisation of the aims of the Council
of Europe, as set out in Article 1 of the Statute.
10. In accepting the recommendations of the
Experts, your Committee wishes to point out
that it has not abandoned the idea that a European
Office for dealing with refugees and overpopulation
problems should eventually be
established. It proposes that the Assembly
should recommend that the Committee of Ministers
refer the proposal for the establishment
of such an Office to the Special Liaison Committee
for consideration, with a view to submitting
t o the Committee of Ministers a reasoned
report on the subject.
11. With these considerations in mind the
Special Committee on Refugees submits to the
Assembly the following draft Order, and the
following draft Recommendation, both of which
were unanimously adopted by the Committee :
2 Draft Order of the Assembly
The Assembly,
in order to ensure a better co-ordination of its
work, and in consonance with the proposal
made by.
The Committee of Ministers and the Committee of Experts that a Committee on Population and
Refugees should be established within the Consultative
Assembly which should take into
account all the problems connected with the
question of over-population, including that
of housing,
and at the request of the Special Committee
on Refugees,
Instructs its Committee on Rules of Procedure
and Privileges to give urgent consideration
before the end of the current session to the need
for establishing a General Committee, entitled
" Committee on Population and Refugees
which would undertake the tasks at present
assigned to the Special Committee on Refugees
and the Sub-Committee on Migrant Workers
of the Committee on Social Questions; this
committee to consist of 28 members appointed
on the same basis as the members of the other
General Committees.
3 Draft Recommendation
The Assembly,
Having taken due note of the Report by the
Committee of Experts on the problem of refugees
and over-population, and expressing its
complete agreement with the spirit and conclusions
of that Report,
Considering, furthermore, that it is essential
to co-ordinate and strengthen European action
for the solution of the problem of refugees and
over-population,
1. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers
the establishment of a Special Liaison Committee
whose members shall be appointed by
the Joint Committee of the Council of Europe
and shall consist of three members from the
Committee of Ministers and three from the
Committee on Population and Refugees, the
latter to be selected from a list of six of its members
to be submitted by that Committee.
This Special Liaison Committee, having regard
to the work of the Committee on Population and
Refugees, shall be responsible for :
a defining, in regard to refugees and overpopulation,
the objectives of a common
European policy, and for co-ordinating
the work of the Council of Europe in this
field;
b laying down the general principles of a
policy for the resettlement of refugees
and unemployed persons;
c promoting on an international scale, by
means of joint action to be taken b y the
countries of emigration and of immigration,
the application of measures calculated
to provide a practical solution to the
problem of refugees and over-population;
and
d enlightening public opinion and collecting
the information necessary to enable the
Parliaments and Governments of Member
States to take such specific measures as
may be required.
To this end, the Special Liaison Committee
:
(i) shall study practical measures, based on
the general principles referred to in paragraph
(b) above, for resettlement and
re-establishment both in Europe and
overseas countries, at the same time
endeavouring to ensure a suitable geographical
distribution in such a way as
to relieve the population pressure which
at present exists on the frontiers of certain
Member States of the Council of
Europe;
(ii) shall make suggestions for the financing
of any such measures;
(iii) shall propose suitable means for safeguarding
the cultural interests, and facilitating
the vocational training of young
refugees ;
(iv) shall establish permanent liaison with
the qualified representatives of Member
Governments of the Council of Europe,
with O. E. E. C , the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees and
inter-governmental organisations dealing
with the problems of refugees, overpopulation
and emigration, in order to
foster their activities and avoid any
duplication of effort;
(v) shall establish relations with the representative
refugee associations and with
the religious and semlar welfare organisations,,
both national and international;
(vi) shall endeavour, in connection with the
legal protection of refugees, to induce
Member States of the Council of Europe
to grant to refugees at least the legal
status for which provision is made in the
Convention on the Status of Refugees
signed at Geneva on 28th July, 195
and, furthermore, to facilitate as far as
possible the free movement of refugees.
2. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers,
with a view to ensuring continuity of
action by the Council of Europe, the appointment
by the Committee of Ministers, on the
proposal of the Special Liaison Committee, of a
" Special Representative, " who should be a
well-known European personality. The duties
of the " Special Representative " shall be, as the
delegate of the Special Liaison Committee, to
act as the representative of the Council of
Europe to the various international organisations
concerned with the problem of refugees
and over-population; to encourage any initiatives
which may be taken with a view to opening
negotiations on this problem between the Member
Governments of the Council of Europe, and
to stimulate the practical application of any
measures which may be adopted.
3. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers,
that the proposal for the establishment of
a European Refugees Office, which has been
reserved by the Committee of Ministers, should
be referred to the Special Liaison Committee
for consideration before any final decision is
taken thereon.
