27/09/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
“The economic crisis reinforces the already significant vulnerability of irregular migrants and increases still further the number of victims for this form of trafficking. Currently, migrants already account for almost half of the total number of the some 20.9 million trapped in forced labour world-wide. Trafficking of human beings affects virtually every country in the world, either as a country of origin, transit or destination,” told Annette Groth (Germany, UEL).
14/09/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Undocumented migrant children are, first and foremost, children, the PACE Migration Committee recalled at a hearing on the detention of unaccompanied and accompanied undocumented children organised in Paris on 14 September. It underlined that the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in any action taken in relation to the child and the child’s family.
07/09/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
“The latest sinking incidents – the terrible loss of life off the coast of Turkey yesterday, in which so many children died, and the news that some people are still missing after the incident off Lampedusa in the early hours of this morning – are a warning to Europe of what can happen when humanitarian tragedies are ignored, said Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), who has investigated boat deaths in the Mediterranean for the PACE.
12/07/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
“Yet again, a dinghy with 55 people on board drifted for 15 days on the Mediterranean. This time, only one person survived. When will this ever end?,” today asked Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), PACE rapporteur on “Lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea: who is responsible?”. She expressed her great sadness and anger over the deaths of another 54 boat people fleeing Libya towards Italy.
06/07/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
The Chairs of PACE Migration and Equality Committees, Giacomo Santini (Italy, EPP/CD) and Tina Acketoft (Sweden, ALDE), have expressed grave concern at an increasing number of incidents of state violence against migrants and refugees.
03/07/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), whose inquiry for PACE uncovered a “catalogue of failures” that led to the deaths of 63 people fleeing Libya by sea after their distress calls were ignored, will present her findings to the Human Rights Committee of the Italian Senate on 4 July in Rome.
03/07/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
PACE rapporteur Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE) will make a fact-finding visit to Ukraine on 4-6 July 2012, in preparation for his report on “Management of mixed migration and asylum challenges beyond the European Union’s eastern border”.
20/06/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
On the occasion of World Refugee Day, Giacomo Santini (EPP/CD), President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, today made the following statement: “From time immemorial, conflicts throughout the world have forced people to flee from their countries in millions..."
01/06/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Roma face “double stigmatisation” when they are on the move, firstly as a persecuted and victimised minority and secondly as migrants, according to PACE’s Migration Committee. In a draft recommendation approved today in Paris, based on a report by Annette Groth (Germany, UEL), the committee points out this stigma is “based on three deep-rooted prejudices, namely that all Roma are nomads, they all come from abroad, and their migration is illegal”.
31/05/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
PACE rapporteur Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC) has called on members of the European Parliament to help uncover further details related to the deaths of 63 refugees who died in the Mediterranean last spring after their distress calls went unanswered. She was briefing the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee today in Brussels on her continuing investigation into the tragedy.
25/05/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), whose report “Lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea: who is responsible?” was recently adopted by the PACE, will be in Brussels on 30 May to brief members of the European Parliament on her findings and seek their assistance in clarifying further how 63 people fleeing the Libya conflict by sea in March 2011 were “left to die”.
29/03/2012 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
A failure to react to distress calls and a “vacuum of responsibility” for search and rescue are among a “catalogue of failures” which led to the deaths of 63 people fleeing the conflict in Libya by sea during a tragic 15-day voyage in March 2011, according to a PACE committee. A report by Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), adopted this morning in Brussels by PACE’s Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, says Italian search and rescue authorities, NATO, the flag states of naval vessels in the area, the Libyan authorities and reckless smugglers are among those who share responsibility.