Motion for a resolution | Doc. 14654 | 16 October 2018
Humanitarian action for refugees and migrants in countries at the southern Mediterranean Sea
The United Nations and many other organisations are present in countries around the Mediterranean Sea, providing important humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants, including life-saving field work. Over the past years, they have been working in extremely difficult situations due to the continuously high numbers of refugees and migrants in often politically tense circumstances. This position is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future and therefore requires more action by the relevant United Nations bodies, as well as by member States bilaterally.
International support has been promised at various donor conferences, for example in Geneva in 2016 for refugees from the Western Sahara, in London in 2016 for Jordan, in Brussels in 2017 and 2018 for Syrian refugees and in Paris in 2018 for Lebanon. However, not all these pledges have been honoured.
While the Council of Europe lacks funds and human resources to support such action, yet parliaments of its member States adopt their national budgets with financial assistance for those countries and the United Nations. Therefore, the Parliamentary Assembly should identify key areas where humanitarian support for refugees and migrants is urgently needed around the Mediterranean Sea and especially in the southern Mediterranean.