On 23-27 April 2018, at the Spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly, a report on the humanitarian situation of internally displaced persons, presented by Mr Killion Munyama (Poland, EPP/CD) will be debated with the participation of Ms Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. Another report on integration, empowerment and protection of migrant children through compulsory education, rapporteur Ms Petra De Sutter, Belgium, will also be debated during the session. The Committee will discuss, amongst others, reports on the situation in the countries neighbouring Syria, the external dimension of migration and asylum policy and the extra-territorial processing of asylum applications. It will hold exchanges of views on migration issues with Amnesty International Director for Europe, Ms Gauri van Gulik; with the Head of the Political and Legal Unit of the UNHCR’s Bureau for Europe, Ms Sophie Magennis; and with SRSG Tomáš Boček on the forthcoming UN Global Compact for migration.
In addition, rapporteurs Tineke Strik and Manlio Di Stefano are planning fact-finding missions to Turkey and to Lebanon respectively.
On 26 March 2018, the Sub-Committee on Refugee and Migrant Children and Young People held a joint meeting at the United Kingdom Parliament, Westminster, with the Sub-Committee on Culture, Cultural Heritage and Diversity, on the subject of student mobility and the consequences of Brexit for migration. The Sub-Committee then visited the Tate Modern Museum as an example of cultural development in underprivileged urban areas.
On 21-22 March 2018, in Jordan, the PACE Migration Committee held exchanges of views at the highest level, with HRH King Abdullah II and specialised ministries. It also visited the Zaatari refugee camp where, with the help of international organisations, Jordan is managing to accommodate 80 000 Syrian refugees.
On the 18 May 2018, in Geneva, the Parliamentary Network on Diaspora Policies of the PACE will organise, in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration (lOM), its first Annual Diaspora Forum. The Forum will be dedicated to ”Diasporas as partners for development in a global world”.