26/11/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Speaking today at the 3rd plenary Assembly of the European Roma Travellers Forum, Ms Donka Banovic (Serbia, EPP/CD) member of PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, declared:” Ever since the 1960s, the Assembly argued that Roma are in need of special protection. Roma are the largest European minority, but one that does not always fit into the definitions of national or linguistic minorities.
22/11/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Andrej Zernovski (“the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, ALDE) of PACE's Migration Committee today urged European Health Ministers meeting in Bratislava to develop health services that are socially and culturally adjusted to the specific needs of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. “The right to health associated with access to health care is one of the basic universal human rights and should be equally applied to all people including migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and displaced persons”, stated Mr Zernovski.
25/10/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG), Chair of PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, today urged European Ministers of Justice meeting in Lanzarote to clarify the rights applicable to regular and irregular migrants in Europe. “Migrants are not second class human beings with second class rights”, stated Mr Çavusoglu. “They are entitled to access to justice and protection of their basic human rights”.
23/10/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Euro-Asian/Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum on Migration, organised by PACE's Sub-Committee on Migration in cooperation with the Turkish Parliament, today ended in Antalya (Turkey) after a two days meeting. The Forum, attended by parliamentarians from European, Asian and Mediterranean countries, as well as representatives of international organizations and experts, approved a statement that PACE’s Committee will present at the 8th Conference of European Ministers of the Council of Europe member states responsible for migration to be held in Kyiv (September 2008). The participants strongly condemned the terrorist attack in South-East Turkey on 21 October 2007 and communicated its deepest sympathy to the relatives of those who were killed.
17/10/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
At the end of a two-day visit to Malta, PACE Rapporteur on large scale arrival of migrants and asylum seekers, Morten Østergaard (Denmark, ALDE), expressed concern that Malta was struggling to cope with the arrival of irregular migrants and asylum seekers. “Warning bells have been ringing about the situation in Malta, but now a solution has to be found,” the Rapporteur commented. “1,665 persons have arrived in Malta already this year, and it is clear that the reception facilities are not adequate to deal with this number of persons.”
11/05/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Migration Committee of PACE and the Greek Parliament’s Migration Committee today called for the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Migration Observatory in a joint statement adopted at a meeting in Athens. The Observatory, says the statement, should improve the common monitoring of migration policies and processes in the Euro-Mediterranean area, and better integrate migration and migrants into the economic, social, democratic and inter-cultural development of the region.
19/03/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
John Greenway (United Kingdom, EDG), at the end of a visit to Spain to gather information on its experience of regularising over 500,000 irregular migrants, has commended the Spanish authorities on helping to provide “a dignified future” for many in a highly vulnerable situation, and said Europe has “a lot to learn” from the programme.
16/02/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Senator Paschal Mooney (Ireland, ALDE), who is preparing a report for PACE’s Migration Committee on “Europe’s response to humanitarian disasters”, will meet on 19 February in Geneva with the Director of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the President and the Director-General of the ICRC and the Directors of the Humanitarian Offices of Finland and Germany (who have been co-ordinating aid on behalf of the EU).
12/12/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A hearing, organised by the PACE's Committee on Migration, in Paris on 11 December, dealt with the advantages and draw-backs of regularisation programmes for irregular migrants. According to the rapporteur on the subject, John Greenway (United Kingdom, EDG), "the Council of Europe’s focus is on human rights and the rule of law. It is therefore very disturbing to hear that the rule of law is breached by millions of people being employed in the black economy, illegal employment often linked to organised crime. Our member states should be concerned about the breaches of law and the consequent breaches of human rights. Breaking this cycle of breaches of law and human rights would be beneficial for every country in Europe and this is what we have to strive for".
08/12/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A hearing, organised by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the PACE, in Paris on 11 December will deal with the advantages and draw-backs of regularisation programmes for irregular migrants, taking into account the different experiences in Europe to date – Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal. The hearing will bring together experts from countries having already conducted regularisation programmes and parliamentarians from the Council of Europe’s 46 member states.
06/11/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
PACE’s Sub-committee on Migration will take part in the Political Platform of the Council’s expert group on migration, the CDMG, which will be discussing how to improve the quality of co-operation between countries of destination and origin, with representatives from member states as well as Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Morocco, the Philippines and Senegal.
25/09/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Following visits to the Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia regions from 18 to 22 September 2006, Leo Platvoet (Netherlands, UEL), Rapporteur of PACE's Migration Committee, said he was optimistic that it was possible to make progress on the issue of the missing from the conflicts in the region. Mr Platvoet, having previously visited Yerevan, Tbilisi and Baku in June 2006, concluded that there was a willingness on the part of all stake-holders in the dossier of missing persons to treat this as a humanitarian and not a political issue.