Migration was the first theme debated by the Conference of Presidents of Parliaments held in Strasbourg on 15-16 September, where issues of solidarity, international cooperation and burden-sharing gave rise to animated debate among the 350 delegates present. PACE President Pedro Agramunt concluded the conference by stating that “integration has a cost, but this cost is amply compensated by its benefits for the whole society”. He recommended closer co-operation with non-European countries of origin and transit, as well as targeted development aid policies. The President also stressed the need to resist the temptation of presenting citizens with a false choice between security on the one hand and dignity and liberty on the other, and for a stronger stance on conflict resolution in order to counterbalance the “peace deficit” identified by several speakers.
The Migration Committee’s Paris meeting on 22 September gave members the opportunity to exchange views with Europol’s Brian Donald, who explained the role and importance of international police cooperation in fighting crime and criminal organisations. Invited in the framework of the adoption of the report on unaccompanied and missing migrant minors, Mr Donald underlined that “a missing child is not a criminal”, so Europol’s real work begins when children become potential or actual victims of trafficking and abuse. Mr Di Stefano’s report on protection of unaccompanied migrant minors, adopted by the Committee in Paris, will be debated at the PACE October session in Strasbourg (10-14 October) along with a report on the impact of European population dynamics on migration policies by Ms Ørmen Johnsen.
A round table on age assessment will be held on 12 October during the part-session in the framework of the Parliamentary Campaign to End Immigration Detention of Children. The topic will then be taken up by the Committee in a future report. The campaign has succeeded in raising awareness and giving visibility to the tens of thousands of cases of detention of migrant children each year and the need to introduce alternatives to detention, through a series of events, seminars and conferences and the signature of a global petition.
Also at the October session, Ms Duméry intends to follow up her January 2016 report on “the Mediterranean Sea: a front door to irregular migration” in the light of the sharp increase in arrivals to Italy (15,000 people between 30 August and 6 September) and the tragic developments in the crisis, which has seen 2,751 deaths on the Central Mediterranean Route since the beginning of 2016.