12.05.2015 - Press Release
New EU Agenda on Migration
Why thousands of migrants deaths are needed to propose a European Migration policy?
The European Commission will propose a new EU Agenda on Migration on May 13th. Since the “Lampedusa tragedy” in 2013, Terre des Hommes has been reiterating that migrants tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea were not “an emergency”, but will continue to occur on a regular basis as a result of an irresponsible security-based European migration policy. Among those who lose their life at Sea there are children, pregnant women and babies.
At last, some faltering steps of a European responsible policy on migration
The European Commission is about to formally adopt its new EU Agenda on Migration on the 13th of May 2015. The milestones of the Agenda was presented yesterday by the EU High representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to the UN Security Council, in order to get a UN mandate to operate security operations in the Mediterranean Sea. “The problem of migrants in the Mediterranean is not only a humanitarian issue, but a security problem, Mogherini said. Migrants and refugees will not be sent back. I want to be clear on this. The Geneva Convention will be fully respected” she underlined.
As an NGO operating in Sicily, Terre des Hommes continues promoting a resourced a coordinated, rapid and dignified resettlement system of children and youth across Europe. “One of our major worry today is the increasing number of children and youth escaping from our first temporary reception centres in South Italy” said Federica Giannotta, Terre des Hommes Project Manager in Sicily. “They escape to reach another European destination, but also because they simply do not get access to their right to asylum in the country where they want to stay for their future life, and they do not receive the adequate care they need once they arrive here” Giannotta concluded.
Dublin Asylum System must be revised
Terre des Hommes calls on again European Heads of States and Governments to understand this is a European responsibility, and not the sole duty of external border countries like Italy, nor the one of few countries like Germany or Sweden that already host higher proportion of migrants than to other countries in Europe. We also consider that the proposed system of “binding burden sharing” proposed by the European Commission cannot be coherently applied without the overcoming and revision of the current Dublin Asylum system. “On the burden sharing system, we expect again an opposition between two blocks of European Member States”, admitted Salvatore Parata, Head of European office at Terre des Hommes International Federation, and this cannot not be done without a revision of the Dublin Asylum System anyhow, he concluded.
Linking Migration and Development
Terre des Hommes considers that a new EU Agenda on Migration cannot be limited to respond to migration “crises” or a strict security and border control logic. The EU must address the root causes of such migration, war, violence, human rights violations and permanent instability in Africa and Middle East. The EU must review both its Neighbourhood policy (process ongoing) but also its Development Cooperation Agenda towards more investment in inclusive development, decent work, social protection and human rights in countries of origin of migrants. In brief, the EU must move from a pure security and border control logic towards a long term strategy for sustainable local development and poverty eradication, and better link its Development & Migration Agenda.
Read the full press release
Salvatore Parata
Head European Office I Terre des Hommes International Federation (TDHIF)
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