05/04/2013 Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Strasbourg, 05.04.2013 – The Migration Committee, meeting yesterday in Rabat, considers that much more needs to be done in the spirit of international co-operation and burden-sharing by the EU and its member states to assist the countries beyond their eastern borders to deal with migratory pressures.
The report by Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), adopted by the committee, underlines that countries beyond the EU’s eastern border are facing increasing pressure from flows of refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants ultimately seeking to enter the EU. Turkey is under particular pressure – with over 20 000 asylum claims in 2012 and 258 200 Syrian nationals currently receiving temporary protection in Turkey – but countries in the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia are also facing increasing flows.
The committee also called on countries beyond the EU’s eastern border to enhance intra-regional and cross-regional co-operation and to improve their capacity to deal with asylum claims.