Helsinki: Towards more harmonious migration management

"A wall never prevented anyone from aspiring to a better life and emigrating in pursuit of their dream". Opening the 7^th Conference of European Ministers responsible for Migration on Monday 16 September, Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer called on all countries to work towards the more harmonious management of migration flows.

Essential in the face of population ageing in Europe, but all too often misunderstood and managed short-sightedly, immigration, be it legal or illegal, can be a perilous adventure for those who attempt it. The individual and social rights of refugees must be guaranteed in the same way as those of ordinary citizens, and it is important, through integration, to foster harmonious coexistence, which is the only remedy against the xenophobic tendencies emerging in many countries.

The Council of Europe’s Committee on Migration has developed a comprehensive strategy in this field, which will be submitted to the Ministers meeting in Helsinki on Monday and Tuesday for their approval. It proposes a number of innovative approaches, including increased co-operation between countries of origin and receiving countries. We need to know more about the magnitude of the migration phenomenon but also about the reasons behind it and the consequences for the countries of departure and arrival. Would-be migrants should be better informed of the living conditions that await them at the other end. All too often they are victims of organised crime networks who mislead and rob them: these criminal organisations must be dismantled.

The Council of Europe’s strategy involves fostering human and social integration of immigrants in host countries and helping those immigrants who so wish to return home in the best possible circumstances. It is aimed at fostering genuine co-operation between countries of emigration and immigration and proposes "replacing the image of a fortress Europe with meaningful international dialogue".

The Council of Europe is ready to place its own machinery, including its conventions and its Development Bank, at the service of the strategy, which will "bring together all the pieces of the puzzle", to quote the Secretary General. The Organisation wants to work in close consultation with the European Union on these issues, particularly on immigration from the south and from central and eastern Europe. The strategy could be implemented by a structure within the Council of Europe the exact form of which remains to be defined. It would help to reveal the exact scale and nature of the migration flows and foster their harmonious management. The Ministers now have two days in Helsinki to make their options and their expectations clear and bring this strategy to life.