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.
19/06/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On the eve of World Refugee Day, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, PACE's Chair of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population released the following statement: “Member states of the Council of Europe must re-examine what are becoming “fortress policies” towards refugees and asylum seekers. The number of refugees in Europe fell by 15 percent last year, according to statistics from UNHCR. While this is in part due to an improvement in conditions in a number of countries of origin of refugees and asylum seekers, it is also due to an increasingly fortress approach by states towards these persons."
16/06/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Leo Platvoet (Netherlands, UEL), rapporteur on missing persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, has warned of the dangers of “politicising” the issue of missing persons. “It is important to treat this issue of missing persons as a humanitarian and human rights matter,” he told a press conference in Baku, following a visit to all three countries, during which he met the families of missing persons.
16/05/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Members of the Assembly’s Sub-committee on Refugees will take part in this seminar, in Lisbon on 18-19 May, on the theme “Co-development and democracy: the socio-political role of migrants”, which looks at co-development policies in relation to democracy, human rights, diasporas and refugees. It is organised by PACE's Migration Committee and other Council bodies in partnership with the Portuguese Parliament and the Gulbenkian Foundation, and will be opened by the Speaker of the Portuguese Parliament Jaime José Matos da Gama.
21/03/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
PACE's Migration Committee has called for "a constant vigil against discrimination, hate speech and stereotyping in the media". In a statement adopted on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the committee said it was particularly worried by the "stereotyping" of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the media. "The portrayal of ‘bogus’ or ‘scrounging’ applicants reinforces prejudices that these are dishonest people out to defraud the system," the parliamentarians said.
21/03/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
"400 000 legal migrant workers have arrived in the United Kingdom within the last 18 months. An estimated 15 million regular and irregular migrants, mainly from former Soviet Republics, are said to currently reside in Russia. Whatever their exact number or status, migrant workers are a reality our governments will have to cope with increasingly in the forthcoming years," PACE rapporteur Doug Henderson (United Kingdom, SOC) said today at a hearing in Brussels on the situation of migrant workers in temporary employment agencies. "Increased mobility, 'open door policies' towards new EU member states as applied in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland, together with the new CIS visa-free regime will create new employment partners in Europe. Therefore it becomes crucial to regulate temporary work as well as service provision," he added.
20/03/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A hearing on the situation of migrant workers in temporary employment agencies, organised by the Assembly’s Migration Committee, will take place in Brussels on Tuesday 21 March. The hearing, in the framework of a coming report by Doug Henderson (United Kingdom, SOC), will look at case studies of migrant workers in Ireland, and from Russia and Ukraine, with the participation of trade union and employment agency representatives.
09/12/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
In a statement adopted today during its meeting in Paris, PACE's Migration Committee expressed its deep concern over the way in which accelerated asylum procedures are developing in Europe: "Accelerated procedures, leading to allegations of ‘refoulement’ of asylum seekers, are increasingly used across Europe," it said.
14/10/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Parliamentarians from the Council of Europe and OSCE as well as members of the European Parliament will take part in a seminar on the situation of refugees and displaced persons in the region of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe, taking place in Skopje on 17 and 18 October 2005. As well as receiving an overview of the situation in the region, participants will discuss the problems of re-integrating internally displaced persons and refugees, the danger of explosive devices and the fate of missing persons.