On 30 January 2020, a report by Serap Yaşar (Turkey, NR) on Missing refugee and migrant children in Europe will be presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) at its winter session in Strasbourg (27-31 January 2020). It describes the situation of missing refugee and migrant children, examines the legal provisions which apply and makes recommendations aimed to better protect children and avoid disappearances. The rapporteur urges member states to ensure that undocumented child migrants are registered and identified with public authorities and that individual guardians are appointed on reception to unaccompanied child refugees or migrants, among many other recommendations. Ms Yaşar’s report will be debated jointly during the Assembly’s winter session with Vernon Coaker’s (United Kingdom, SOC) report on Concerted action against human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants, adopted by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons on 2 December 2019, on the occasion of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. It underlines the Council of Europe’s considerable contribution to co-operation against trafficking and its relevance in devising strategies to counter the criminal activities of which migrants are the first targets. Greater awareness, better protection of victims and effective deterrence are needed as well as closer international co-operation in order to increase the effectiveness of action against human trafficking.
Committee hearings during the session include an exchange of views with the newly-appointed Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees, Drahoslav Štefánek and a hearing with the chair of the Mexican delegation to PACE on the situation of migrant children in Mexico.
On 16 December 2019, in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Parliamentary Network on Diaspora Policies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held a Conference on “Diasporas’ active participation in state-building processes” at the invitation of the Parliament of Georgia. Some 90 participants from non-governmental diaspora organisations, members of national parliaments, high-level government officials, experts, academics and diplomatic representatives attended the conference. 22 countries were represented from the host countries, as well as from Algeria, Armenia, Jordan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine.