15/03/2021 Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
The Migration Committee today expressed its deep concern about the extremely serious humanitarian situation of refugees and migrants in many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, a transit region towards Europe for these people, many of whom risk their lives on the Mediterranean Sea.
In this context, the committee regrets that humanitarian assistance by member States sometimes lacks coordination among European donor countries and receiving countries, thus leading to regional inequalities in humanitarian aid and reduced effectiveness.
As national parliaments debate and approve national budgets – including financial aid to foreign countries – PACE is in a key position to raise awareness among its members and their parliaments with a view to promoting concerted European action, according to the report by Lord Alexander Dundee (United Kingdom, EC/DA), adopted today by the committee, which analyses the situation in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Through its relations with parliaments having the Partner for Democracy status, and with other parliaments in North Africa and the Middle East, PACE has the opportunity – at the parliamentary level – to promote a constructive dialogue on the humanitarian situation and the needs in this region, the parliamentarians concluded.