23/05/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Measures should be taken to change the image of “clandestine” migrants, a term associated with crime and never with the need for employment, according to participants at the 2nd Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum on Migration which concluded yesterday in Rome. Discussing “facts and myths about migration”, participants – including parliamentarians from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt – heard that migrants were often meeting a demand for labour in host countries.
02/02/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Rosmarie Zapfl-Helbling (Switzerland, EPP/CD) meets the Dutch Immigration Minister and members of the Dutch Refugee Council to prepare her report on "The policy of return for failed asylum seekers in the Netherlands". She also visits an asylum centre in Utrecht.
07/12/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Migrants being a “soft” target, with no or little means to defend themselves, are an easy “victim” for negative myth-telling tabloid press across Europe. Participants at an exchange of views with media representatives on the image of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the media, organised in Paris on 6 December by PACE’s Committee on Migration, agreed that the press have the fundamental role of steering the public in the right direction.
05/11/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A centre to commemorate victims of deportations, mass expulsions and population transfers should be created under the auspices of the Council of Europe, according to a draft report of PACE’s Migration Committee discussed in Geneva on 5 November. Presenting the idea to the committee, Mats Einarsson (Sweden, UEL) said such a centre – which could be endorsed by European heads of state at the Council of Europe's Third Summit in May – would raise public awareness and promote research on mass deportations past, present and future in the Council of Europe’s 46 member states, carried out "due to a political decision".
29/10/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The creation of a centre to commemorate the victims of expulsions and mass deportations in Europe - and to help prevent them ever happening again - is to be discussed by parliamentarians, historians and experts in international law during a public seminar in Geneva on 4 November. The seminar, on “the establishment of a centre for European nations’ remembrance under the auspices of the Council of Europe”, has been organised by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), partly in response to the debate in Germany over the establishment of a “Centre Against Expulsions” in Berlin.
14/09/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today made public a report on the humanitarian situation of the Chechen displaced population, prepared by Tadeusz Iwinski (Poland, SOC), which stresses that the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons remains very precarious. While recognising the efforts undertaken by the Russian authorities in order to advance the reconstruction of the destroyed republic, the committee agreed that the security and humanitarian situation remained unsatisfactory.
08/06/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On 11 June, the Sub-committee on Population of the Assembly’s Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population will take part in a meeting in Strasbourg of the Council of Europe’s inter-governmental group of population experts, the European Population Committee, and will discuss preparations for a parliamentary seminar in Bratislava in September on demographic challenges for social cohesion, with special focus on central and eastern Europe.
06/05/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On 13 May, the Assembly’s Sub-committee on Migration will take part in the second session of the Council of Europe’s political platform on migration, which aims to promote north-south, east-west dialogue as well as co-operation on migration aspects between countries of origin, transit and destination. The chosen theme is student mobility and co-development.
29/03/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
At the end of the Euro-Mexican Forum on Migration, organised in Mexico on 29 and 30 March, the members of the Mexican Senate and the members of the Assembly Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population adopted the Sonora declaration. They agreed to submit new initiatives to deal with the situation of migrants. They regretted the lack of respect of human rights of migrants, an issue where insufficient efforts had been made to date. They also stressed the importance of attempting to protect migrants’ physical integrity and to prevent the death of migrants who attempt to illegally cross the United States border, as well as the death of those who illegally try to enter European territory. It was considered timely to convene a Second Euro-Mexican Forum on Migration, which this time, is to be held in Europe, and to invite other countries of the Americas that face this problem, to participate.
12/03/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A its meeting in Paris on 10 March, the Migration Committee approved a report on “a European migration observatory/agency” – due for debate in the Assembly’s April session – and one on “the situation of refugees and displaced persons in the Russian Federation and other selected CIS countries”, both by Tadeusz Iwiński (Poland, SOC). The committee also approved a report on “human mobility and the right to family reunion” by Rosmarie Zapfl-Helbling (Switzerland, EPP/CD).
05/03/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Migration Committee is due to approve on 10 March, in Paris, a report on “a European migration observatory/agency” – due for debate in the Assembly’s April session – and one on “the situation of refugees and displaced persons in the Russian Federation and other selected CIS countries”, both by Tadeusz Iwiński (Poland, SOC). The committee may also approve a report on “human mobility and the right to family reunion” by Rosmarie Zapfl-Helbling (Switzerland, EPP/CD). A new ad hoc sub-committee on the humanitarian situation of displaced persons in Chechnya meets for the first time to consider its work programme – including the possible co-organising, in co-operation with the Russian State Duma and Federation Council, of a Round Table on this subject. The Sub-Committees on Refugees, on Migration and on Population also meet to elect their chairs and to consider their future work.
29/01/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The European Population Committee will today present (2 p.m.) to the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population its Demographic Yearbook 2002-2003 covering all 45 member states and one European non-member country (Belarus). According to the yearbook, in all European countries, except Turkey, the total fertility rate is currently below replacement level. It shows a widespread decline in the number of marriages and the appearance of other forms of union, particularly cohabitation.