Missing migrants, refugees and asylum seekers – A call to clarify their fate
Recommendation 2284
(2024)
Author(s):
Parliamentary Assembly
Origin
Assembly
debate on 1 October 2024 (27th sitting) (see Doc. 16037, report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and
Displaced Persons, rapporteur: Mr Julian Pahlke). Text adopted by the Assembly on
1 October 2024 (27th sitting).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers
to its Resolution 2569
(2024) “Missing migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
– A call to clarify their fate” and invites the Committee of Ministers
to express the Council of Europe’s readiness, in line with the Organisation’s
values and standards, to join forces with its international partners
and to support member States in further developing and adding to
the efforts which have been initiated in recent years on the issue
of missing migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
2. In this respect, the Assembly encourages the Committee of
Ministers to strengthen its paths of co-operation with the most
relevant organisations on the international stage, in particular
the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International
Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund and
the International Organization for Migration.
3. It considers that progress on joint and coherent policy making
on this issue also requires specific discussions among the competent
authorities of member States. It invites the Committee of Ministers
to acknowledge the pressing need for common standards across member
States in order to enhance search processes at the national and
transnational levels, and to improve the management and identification
of deceased migrants, in particular by:
3.1 updating Recommendation No. R (99) 3 on the harmonisation
of medico-legal autopsy rules, in light of the emerging challenges
and new practices, especially with respect to post-mortem documentation
for identification, the standardisation of forensic investigation
and autopsy rules, and the particular context of cross-border mobility;
3.2 adopting guidelines on the collection, transmission and
centralisation of post-mortem data for the forensic identification
of missing persons in Europe; providing a standard definition of
missing persons; and protecting the rights of family members as
data subjects protected under the Convention
for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing
of Personal Data (ETS No. 108) as amended by Protocol
CETS No. 223 (“Convention 108+”). These guidelines should also cover
the specific legal and practical issues at stake as regards the
situation of missing migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and families
in search of missing persons, including in a cross-border context,
and could be opened for endorsement by non-member States which are
party to Convention 108+;
3.3 facilitating discussions among prosecutors of member States,
particularly as regards the possibility of reviewing the standard
practices already in place in a number of member States on the identification
and management of cases of deceased missing migrants, refugees and
asylum seekers, and of establishing guidelines for a standard protocol
to be used across all member States.
