Meeting in Strasbourg on 9 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons adopted a resolution calling on member states to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and maritime law, and to protect migrants’ lives and rights at sea. The resolution, based on a report by Paulo Pisco (Portugal, SOC), calls for the re-establishment of large-scale European search and rescue operations and recognises Europe’s seas as “maritime humanitarian spaces.”

The Committee urged member states to increase support to coastal authorities in regions such as Greece’s Aegean, Spain’s Canary Islands, and Italy’s Sicily. It also recommended reassessing cooperation with the Libyan and Tunisian coast guards, citing their failure to meet human rights standards. The resolution further called for the prohibition of pushbacks and collective expulsions, and for independent monitoring of alleged human rights violations at sea.

At the same time, the Committee stressed the importance of enabling civil society organisations to operate freely and in complementarity with public authorities, without facing legal or administrative barriers. It also highlighted the need for member states to establish safe and legal migration pathways for those in need of international protection.

In a related statement, Committee Chair Oleksii Goncharenko (Ukraine, ECPA) underlined the urgency of continued financial support for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), noting that the majority of the world’s displaced persons are hosted in low- and middle-income countries where the agency plays a vital role. He recalled the Council of Europe’s commitment to closer cooperation with international partners such as the UN.

“Let us be up to the values we decided for ourselves,” said Goncharenko. “Let us keep supporting the work of the UNHCR.”