Interim reply to Recommendation 1211 (1993) on clandestine migration: traffickers and employers of clandestine migrants

20 September 1993

Doc. 6925

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

Interim Reply to Recommendation 1211 (1993)

on clandestine migration: traffickers and

employers of clandestine migrants

(adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 7 September 1993

at the 497th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)

1. The Committee of Ministers shares the Parliamentary Assembly's view that clandestine immigration can neither resolve employment problems in western Europe nor stimulate growth in the less developed countries.

2. It should be noted that, in general terms, the various issues raised in Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1211 (1993) on clandestine migration: traffickers and employers of clandestine migrants were treated in the Recommendation adopted at the Conference on Uncontrolled Migrations, held in Budapest on 15-16 February 1993. Thirty-four European States, including the majority of the Council of Europe member States, participated in this Conference, at which the Council of Europe was represented by the Secretary General. At the end of the conference it was decided to establish an informal working party to pursue the implementation of the adopted recommendations; this group will probably hold its first meeting in the near future.

3. Following the Budapest Conference, the Group of Senior Officials responsible for the follow-up to the Conference of Ministers on the movements of persons from Central and Eastern European countries (Vienna Group) established a Working Party on a Solidarity Structure (burden-sharing), which at its 2nd meeting (17-18 June 1993) took note of a report on the theme "Towards collective European co-operation with respect to the movements of people", in which a number of issues raised in the Recommendation are studied. The Vienna Group itself discussed the follow-up to this report at its meeting of 1-2 July 1993.

4. With reference in particular to paragraph 9.i of the Recommendation, the Vienna Group is contributing to the exchange of information between States on the movements and methods of entry of clandestine migrants.

5. As far as paragraph 9.ii.a is concerned, the report mentioned in paragraph 3 above contains a table of bilateral readmission and repatriation agreements already concluded between European States.

6. With regard to paragraph 9.ii.b, the Vienna Group's Working Party on Information Systems and its new Working Party on the Profile of Potential Migrants have been active in setting up information programmes for potential migrants. Following a feasibility study undertaken by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) at the request of the Vienna Group, a Migration Information Programme (MIP), aimed at improving the flow of precise information to potential migrants living in Central and Eastern European States, is currently being launched; a small unit has been established in Budapest to carry out the agreed activities.

Such activities are fully in line with the Conclusions of the 4th Conference of European Ministers responsible for Migration Affairs (Luxembourg, 17-18 September 1991), in which the Ministers agreed that "full and realistic information should be made available to potential migrants on the regulations for entry and stay and on employment and living conditions in the host countries".

7. As far as paragraph 9.ii.c is concerned, the same Ministers, in their Conclusions, stated that "experience shows that collective regularisations are not a solution" to the problem of irregular migration. The Committee of Ministers, moreover, feels that in the present context it is difficult to expect that the practice of regularisations can be greatly developed.

8. With regard to paragraph 9.ii.d, the Vienna Conference underlined the importance of fixed-term training and job contracts, as did the European Ministers responsible for Migration Affairs who, in the Resolution adopted at their 4th Conference, resolved "to reinforce their co-operation on all aspects of migration policy, with the aim (inter alia) of examining various forms of well-organised temporary employment, which could help both to increase the professional knowledge of those concerned and to reduce irregular immigration".

Furthermore, a two-year project on "Short-term migration in Europe" has been included in the Intergovernmental Programme of Activities. The initial aim of this project, which should start this year, will be to make available detailed information about short-term migration in Greater Europe to-day. It should be added that the report submitted to the Vienna Group (see paragraph 3 above) mentions fixed-term training and job contracts as an alternative to migration in the framework of co-operation measures to avoid uncontrolled migrations.

9. In the wider context, with regard to paragraph 9.iii, the Committee of Ministers continues to increase its co-operation with countries of Central and Eastern Europe with the aim of improving, inter alia, their prospects for social and economic development, particularly through the "Demosthenes" programme.

10. As far as paragraph 9.iv is concerned, the Committee of Ministers has assigned ad hoc terms of reference to the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) and to the European Committee on Migration (CDMG) to give an opinion on this proposal, and will give a further reply to the Parliamentary Assembly once these opinions have been received.