In April and May 2023, the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) maintained its strong focus on the most acute migration-related issues on the continent.

On the basis of a fact-finding visit to Warsaw and Vilnius in early April, PACE rapporteur Paul Galles (Luxembourg, EPP/CD) prepared a report on the challenges faced by Belarusians in exile, which was unanimously approved by PACE’s Migration Committee on 12 May.

The Committee hailed the “resilience, courage and determination” of Belarusians who have been forced into exile by the repression of the regime – and urged hosting states to take legal and practical steps to welcome them. “The Belarusian people are not the same as the Lukashenka regime” and should not be treated in a discriminatory fashion because of the regime’s participation in the war against Ukraine.

Most exiled Belarusians have “only one wish” – to return to a democratic Belarus – but until then the countries temporarily hosting them should “do their utmost to ensure that they can stay legally and are welcomed in dignified conditions”, the parliamentarians said.

They added that they “can only be impressed by the work and initiatives of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the very likely successful candidate against Aliaksandr Lukashenka in the 2020 elections”.

At the end of his visit to Türkiye (12-14 April 2023), PACE’s Rapporteur on the crisis facing Afghan refugees, Birgir Thórarinsson (Iceland, EPP/CD), praised the country’s “commendable efforts” to provide access to services to registered refugees, but noted that several challenges remain.

He warned that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan should be of concern to all Council of Europe member States and urged them to show solidarity in responding to what he described as “the forgotten Afghan refugee crisis”.

Following massive earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, the PACE Migration Committee adopted a declaration calling on the Council of Europe states to facilitate the issuance of emergency visas to the populations affected by the earthquakes who may wish to be reunited temporarily with their loved ones. In this respect, the Committee welcomed the initiatives already taken by the Belgian, Dutch, German and Swiss authorities to enable such processing. It also called on member States and their consular services to speed up the examination of family reunification visa requests by those who can claim this right from Türkiye.”

The Committee also adopted a declaration concerning the United Kingdom’s Illegal Migration Bill, which recalled that “The right to seek asylum is a fundamental right,” adding that, if passed, “the Illegal Migration Bill would deny protection to asylum seekers who entered the UK unauthorised, including victims of trafficking.”

The government-proposed amendment to the Bill, puts into question the obligation under Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights to respect interim measures, is of immense concern, the PACE Committee said, adding that non-discrimination, non-penalisation and non-refoulement are the pillars of the Refugee Convention, requiring effective access to fair and individualised procedures.

Also, PACE rapporteur on Pushbacks on land and sea: illegal measures of migration management , Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC), made a statement in which he expressed grave concerns about the legality of amendments to Lithuania’s new border protection law.

“On 25 April 2023, the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania approved the amendments to the Law on the State Border and its Protection which aim to legalise pushbacks at the Lithuanian border with Belarus, and which seeks to consolidate the establishment of border guards' ‘supporters’ by enabling civilians to use coercion and violence when protecting the state’s borders. The provisions of this law are a willful distortion of core UN and European conventions.”

I am expressing severe concerns as regards the risks entailed in this legislation, as amended: legalising pushbacks does not mean such practices are lawful by international and ECHR standards. I therefore urge the Lithuanian institutions to ensure that the concerns expressed at the highest international level are addressed in the design of all their border management policies,” he said.

On 11 May, at its meeting in Paris, the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons adopted a, called for the respect of fundamental rights in Mayotte in the framework of Operation “Wuambushu”.

The Committee recalled the imperative of respecting the right of asylum enshrined in the 1951 Geneva Convention and in French domestic law, as well as of respecting the right to an effective remedy and the right to private and family life guaranteed in Articles 13 and 8 of the ECHR. Deporting people without examining their individual situation exposes them to a risk of ill-treatment, to the violation of their procedural rights, and may constitute a collective expulsion potentially in breach of Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the ECHR. The Committee will welcome any dialogue aiming to rapidly calm the current tensions so as to address the public policy issues at stake in the full respect for fundamental rights in Mayotte,” said the declaration, proposed at the initiative of Emmanuel Fernandes (France, UEL):

Finally, the Committee also proposed that migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons should be granted free access to sports centres, clubs and activities, and provided with free team strips if they need them, as a way of promoting their social inclusion.

In a draft resolution adopted on 11 May, based on a report by Nigar Arpadarai (Azerbaijan, EC/DA), the Committee underlined the benefits – for both host societies and refugees, migrants and IDPs – of using sport to bring communities together, encourage team spirit and build mutual respect.