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Resolution 2173 (2017)
A comprehensive humanitarian and political response to the migration and refugee crisis and the continuing flows into Europe
1. The Parliamentary Assembly regrets
that, despite much debate and some positive action, no comprehensive
humanitarian and political response has yet been found for the challenges
presented by the large-scale migratory and refugee flows into Europe.
It considers that this state of affairs, although mainly the consequence
of armed conflicts in Syria and in other countries, demonstrates
the failure of European States to co-operate effectively in addressing
its root causes, providing humanitarian assistance, protecting human rights
and managing efficiently the reception, asylum processing and integration
of refugees and asylum seekers.
2. The Assembly recalls its numerous adopted texts calling for
greater co-operation and increased solidarity and sharing of responsibilities
between refugees’ countries of origin, transit and destination,
in particular Resolution
2118 (2016) “Refugees in Greece: challenges and risks
– A European responsibility” and Resolution 2088 (2016) “The Mediterranean
Sea: a front door to irregular migration”. The implementation of the
recommendations in these texts would go a long way towards creating
the proper conditions for a solution to be found to the refugee
crisis, which is more the result of a political and migration-management
problem than a lack of resources or capacity.
3. The Assembly points to the range of recommendations made in
other resolutions with a more general scope which, when combined,
form a coherent set of policy orientations, such as Resolution 2147 (2017) on the
need to reform European migration policies, Resolution 2043 (2015) on democratic
participation for migrant diasporas, Resolution 2175 (2017) on migration
as an opportunity for European development, and Resolution 2176 (2017) “Integration
of refugees in times of critical pressure: learning from experience
and examples of best practice”. A third group of texts applies to
particularly vulnerable groups: Resolution 2136 (2016) on harmonising
the protection of unaccompanied minors in Europe and Resolution 2159 (2017) on
protecting refugee women and girls from gender-based violence.
4. With respect to tapping into the potential of Europe’s regions
and civil society, the Assembly welcomes the initiative to launch
a parliamentary diaspora network and believes that the engagement
of diaspora communities is part of the solution to the ongoing crisis
and a good basis for the future with respect to the reception and
integration of regular migrants and refugees.
5. The Assembly also recalls Resolution 2137 (2016) on the impact
of European population dynamics on migration policies, which points
to the fact that, in addition to a need for a new workforce in most
of Europe’s ageing countries, many of Europe’s rural regions are
suffering from a population exodus despite their good potential
for development, and that more incentives to encourage migrants
and refugees to settle in these areas would benefit both the new
inhabitants and the dwindling communities.
6. The Assembly also welcomes the New York Declaration for Refugees
and Migrants, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in
September 2016, which underlines the need for fair sharing of responsibilities
in hosting the world’s refugees and outlines a comprehensive refugee
response framework calling for a “whole-of-society” approach.
7. In this respect, the Assembly considers that member States
should acknowledge that:
7.1. migration
of all types will be an increasing feature of the world’s societies
in the foreseeable future, and that as a consequence general well-being
will also depend on the effective protection of the fundamental
rights of people moving from one country to another, especially
refugees, who have been deprived of the individual possibility and
collective capacity to ensure their livelihood;
7.2. immigration into Europe is instrumental both for renewed
dynamic and modernisation of societies and for the survival of the
European continent which is entering a “demographic winter”;
7.3. one of the next waves of refugees will certainly be driven
by extreme climatic unbalance, and that it is therefore essential
to work together on devising new provisions in international law
for the protection of the victims of forced migration due to climate
change, while promoting the full implementation of the Paris Agreements
and the successive international conferences on climate change in
order to limit the negative effects of man-made ecological disasters
in the making.
8. A comprehensive humanitarian and political response to the
challenges presented by large-scale migratory and refugee flows
into Europe should be based on the principles of human dignity and
solidarity and aim at improving co-operation and harmonising human
rights protection. Therefore, the Assembly calls on member States
and on Europe’s neighbouring countries to:
8.1. pursue dialogue with countries in situations of armed
conflict and do their utmost to promote peaceful solutions to end
the plight of people forced to leave their homes as a consequence
of war;
8.2. fully implement the provisions of relevant international
treaties to which they are parties, in particular the 1951 United
Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967
Protocol, the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) and
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well
as the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children
against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201, Lanzarote
Convention) and the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and
Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210,
Istanbul Convention), and to ratify those conventions to which they
are not yet parties;
8.3. work towards a more systematic implementation of these
treaties and collective supervision of their implementation;
8.4. co-operate in maintaining and developing transnational
information systems and databases on asylum applications and their
results, returns and refugees who have gone missing (especially
children).
9. The Assembly underlines that, for European Union member States,
solidarity is a legal obligation emanating from the treaties and
is also a fundamental principle of European Union law. It therefore
asks the European Union and/or its member States to:
9.1. fully implement without further
delay the relocation and resettlement decisions already taken by the
European Union, if they have not yet done so;
9.2. speed up the work on the adoption of the new regulation
on a common asylum procedure to replace Directive 2013/32/UE on
asylum procedures and the reform of the Common European Asylum System,
including the revision of the Dublin Regulation and the modalities
of applying the principles of fair sharing of responsibility and
solidarity in the future.
10. With respect to national practices and regulations, the Assembly
further calls on member States to:
10.1. respect the rights and dignity of all refugees and asylum
seekers, in particular vulnerable groups such as children and women
refugees, members of religious minorities and unaccompanied minors;
10.2. ensure refugees’ and asylum seekers’ access to legal protection
and assistance and their right to appeal;
10.3. align as far as possible levels of protection and social
and financial assistance, having regard to the cost of living, in
order to encourage a more balanced distribution of refugees within
the European territory;
10.4. share and implement best practices in areas such as family
care and accommodation, education and vocational training, health
care and psychological assistance, age assessment, guardianship
and mentoring;
10.5. provide full and accurate information to refugees on the
possibilities of settlement in different regions, as well as their
comparative advantages and challenges;
10.6. explore further incentives for resettled or relocated
refugees to reside for a fixed period of time in a host country
which has offered assistance and facilitated integration, in order
to avoid premature departures from countries which have believed
and invested in integration as an asset;
10.7. work hand in hand with non-governmental organisations
to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers receive appropriate protection
and assistance at all stages of their journey from their country
of origin to their settlement in a new destination country.
11. The Assembly calls on the European Union, the United Nations
and the Council of Europe to:
11.1. step
up their supervision of the implementation of legislation related
to refugees and migrants and where necessary update provisions to
better adapt them to today’s needs;
11.2. consider carefully whether the establishment of asylum-processing
centres outside the Council of Europe territory, with necessary
safeguards and in compliance with international human rights standards
with respect to refugees and asylum seekers, could be envisaged;
11.3. continue their denunciation of cases of abuse of the human
rights of refugees and asylum seekers when and where they occur,
and hold member States’ governments systematically to account in
these cases;
11.4. recognise that while the level of protection of the fundamental
rights of migrants should be similar wherever they find themselves,
individual States should have the liberty to seek appropriate solutions
as long as they comply with international human rights standards.