Reply to the 9th progress report of the Council of Europe Special Representative for National Refugees and Over-Population

Recommendation 445 (1965)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly Debate on 1st October 1965 (15th Sitting) (see Doc. 1940, report of the Committee on Population and Refugees). Textadopted by the Assembly on 1st October 1965 (15th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Having considered the 9th Progress Report of the Special Representative for National Refugees and Over-Population Doc. 1895 ;

2. Welcoming the efforts by the Special Representative and his Advisory Committee to improve the material, social, legal and psychological position of migrant workers and their families ;

3. Convinced that the scale and urgency of this highly European problem are such as to require concrete action by the Council of Europe and the application of European solutions ;

4. Reaffirming its belief in the fundamental importance of vocational training and the value it attaches to the priority projects submitted by the Special Representative ;

5. Welcoming the action taken by the Committee of Ministers, in accordance with its previous recommendations, regarding the vocational training grants scheme for instructors ;

6. Considering, however, that the Council of Europe's efforts should not be confined to the training of senior staff but, in view of certain economic and social requirements, should be extended to cover workers ;

7. Recalling its Recommendations 113 and 171 in which it stressed the value of the co-ordination of policies on social and manpower questions and of international co-operation at the highest level,

8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite member Governments :

a as regards the maintenance obligations of migrant workers :

8.1.1 to accede to the United Nations Convention of 20th June 1956 and The Hague Conventions of 24th October 1956 and 15th April 1958, if they have not already done so ;

8.1.2 to adopt the draft Council of Europe standard form designed to facilitate the recovery of maintenance due to dependants ;

8.1.3 to appoint, if possible, in their respective countries a single authority to receive and dispatch the forms ;

b as regards the housing of migrant workers :

to study the possibility of financing social dwellings through a specialised European body ;

c as regards vocational training :

8.3.1 to approve the vocational training project for 300 young workers and to make available the funds required for its implementation ;

8.3.2 to authorise the publication of the survey on the location of vocational training centres in member countries ;

d as regards co-operation on social and manpower questions :

to re-examine, in the light of recent developments, the possibility of convening, within the framework of the Council of Europe, a conference of the Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs of the Council of Europe member countries.