On 25 May 2021, the Council of Europe participated in a session on ‘Recognition of refugee qualifications without documentation: is it possible?’ presenting the evidence of the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR). The online event was part of the Final Conference of the Thematic Peer Group on the Lisbon Recognition Convention (TPG-LRC) Project ‘Recognition in the European Higher Education Area: outlining the way forward’, and it gathered over 300 participants. The aim of the Conference was to identify possible ways forward for recognition in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) starting from a reflection on the Rome Communiqué with the main stakeholders involved in the field and exploiting experiences and tools developed in projects supported by the Erasmus+ programme as well as in the framework of the Bologna Process.
On 4 May 2021, Mahmoud Al Koko, an EQPR holder living in Germany and working thanks to the passport, spoke at an online event, organised under the auspices of the German Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, to describe the German experience with the assessments of refugees’ qualifications that cannot be fully documented, based on the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) methodology and on already existing legal frameworks and procedures in Germany.
Mahmoud Al Koko testified to what the European Qualification Passport for Refugees means to him: “This paper is a helping hand in a foreign country, a paper that empowers its owner to do more, that will not make you feel lost again. It really changed my life”.
The event brought together stakeholders from different fields involved in refugee integration, such as recognition authorities, the coordinating working group of departments responsible for recognition of foreign qualifications (AG „Koordinierende Ressorts“), higher education institutions and civil society organisations.
Implemented by the Council of Europe since 2017, the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees project enables refugees to have their qualifications assessed even in the absence of a full documentation. The EQPR, as a document, can be used by refugees when they wish to enter further studies or when they seek employment.
For more information: EQPR project webpage