SOLIDAR: Implementation of the EU Agenda of Migration – SOLIDAR calls for a comprehensive and long-term approach

Two weeks after the presentation of the European Agenda on Migration, the European Commission adopted yesterday [27 May] a first set of proposal for the implementations of the actions foreseen in the agenda. These measures include: a proposal to activate the emergency mechanism envisaged under article 78.3 (TFEU) to assist Italy and Greece by relocating people in need of international protection in other member states; a recommendation asking member states for the resettlement of 20,000 people from outside the EU; a public consultation on the future of the Blue Card Directive; a new operation plan to improve the number of assets and extends the geographical l area of the Triton operation; guidelines for member states setting out a best practices approach for fingerprinting newly arrived applicants for international protection.

Last but not least, the Commission also presented the EU Action plan against migrant smuggling which sets up concrete actions to prevent and counter migrant smuggling that should be developed “in connection with on-going work to establish a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operation to systematically identify, capture and dispose of vessels used by smugglers”, as the document states. These actions include the establishment of list of suspicious vessels, the creation of dedicated platforms to enhancing cooperation and exchange of information with financial institutions. In this framework, the Commission also announced the proposal to improve in 2016, to improve the existing EU legal framework to tackle migrant smuggling, including the revision of the Facilitation directive with the aim of improving criminal sanctions for the facilitation of irregular migration.

In response to this approach, SOLIDAR continues to stress the idea that migration is not a problem to be tackled but an inevitable reality that needs to be managed with solidarity. In particular, as previously stated, SOLIDAR stresses the following issues:

  • SOLIDAR calls upon the institutions responsible for the ongoing efforts to set a CSDP operation to consider that the use of armed forced, under the justification of fighting smugglers, will inevitably provoke more instability and result in trapping people in desperate conditions.
  • SOLIDAR calls upon the institutions involved in the revision of EU legal framework to fight irregular migration, including the revision of the Facilitation directive, not to criminalise the work of many civil society organisations offering humanitarian aid and support to people in need.

In this regard, SOLIDAR fully supports the statement of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that fighting smugglers is not the answer and that a comprehensive and long-term response is needed. Furthermore, SOLIDAR welcomes and offers its full support to the work of Members of the European Parliament Kashetu Kyenge and Roberta Metsola who are currently working on an own-initiative report on the holistic approach to migration in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in the European Parliament.

Full article.

Find out about Social Platform’s campaign on the revision of the Facilitation directive here.