“The European Agenda on migration presented by the European Commission on May 13, 2015 bears innovative features. Ambiguities on important aspects, however, prevail.”
“A substantive closure on legal economic migration in the EU persists: this forces the migration fluxes toward irregular entry channels or the request for international protection, with subsequent negative effects on the European asylum system.”
With these words ASGI presents its analysis on the content of the European Agenda on migration and asylum. Point by point, the Association, in a side workshop within its annual Assembly, assessed and analysed the content of the Agenda and issued specific recommendations and requests.
Whilst acknowledging that the Agenda considers that migrations are ordinary phenomena in the life and history of European societies, with deep political, economic and environmental roots, ASGI considers that this awareness is translated neither into effective structural interventions, to be implemented by the EU in the countries of origin, nor in clearly identified tools for the ordinary – as opposed to emergency – management of migration fluxes. ASGI commends the introduction of new instruments within the international protection of refugees such as relocation and resettlement. Such possibilities, however, must be clearly regulated and the will of those concerned must be taken into due consideration. In particular, resettlement should be implemented with great resolution “so as to significantly lighten the burden of those areas where there are significant concentrations of displaced persons fleeing wars, who are currently in countries who are more fragile than EU States, such as Lebanon and Jordan. Over there, the implosion could provoke other and more serious conflicts which would cause a higher number of people to flee”
With regard to the reference, contained in the Agenda, to a possible military intervention in Libya ASGI believes that “this would be a wicked option as, in addition to worsen the general situation of a war-torn country, it would have adverse consequences on the conditions of migrants themselves, who would become both direct victims of military operations and indirect victims by reasons of the humanitarian crisis arising from the conflict.”
“We hope that our analysis helps the representatives of the Italian and European Institutions currently involved in the difficult task of deciding the direction Europe wants to take”, says Lorenzo Trucco, President of ASGI. “We trust that the fundamental values of the Union, rooted in a tradition of solidarity and social cohesion, will prevail over the closure of the fortress”.
Translated by Ivana Roagna, Kinga Janik , Chiara Favilli
Press contact : info@asgi.it, +39 3894988460
