Roque speech at 26 BSPC

|[pic] | || |PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN || |Assemblee parlementaire de la Mediterranee || |الجمعيـــة البرلمانيــة للبحـــر الأبيــض المتوســـــــط |Check against deliveryTalking points for Hon. Pedro RoquePAM PresidentOn the occasion of the26th Annual Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference“Migration and Integration”Hamburg, 5 September 2017Madame PresidentExcellencies,Distinguished guestsLadies and Gentlemen,I would like to thank you, Hon. Carola Veit, President of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, for the kind invitation extended to me, as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), to participate in such an important event. This is the first time that a member of PAM addresses your Assembly, and indeed a precious occasion to develop an effective dialogue on a number of strategic issues. I really appreciate the opportunity of being here in Hamburg today.For those of you who are not familiar with PAM, I can briefly say that we are an international organization, with the Permanent Observer Status at the UN General Assembly. We offer to our 30 member and associate States, a dedicated forum of discussion and action on security, economy and human rights with a regional focus of the Mediterranean region. With our activities, we provide our member states with some concrete tools of parliamentary diplomacy aimed at addressing the challenges and treats ahead of us. The unicity of PAM is that our countries belong to three different continents, and some of them have no diplomatic relations. Very different socio-economic and cultural realities characterize the daily life of our citizens. Still the degree of understanding and cooperation among us will represent a surprise for many of you.PAM is active in many sectors, including, among others, regional security and conflict prevention, the Middle East Peace process, negotiations in Syria and Libya, Counter-Terrorism, Trade Facilitation and Investments, Energy, Sustainable use of natural resources, Food Security, Climate Change, Human Rights, Academic Cooperation and, of course, Migrations.We are very advanced on Counter Terrorism, and next November, together with the colleagues of the CIS PA and the UN Security Council, we will organize a major conference in St Petersburg on filling the gaps in national legislations to counter Foreign Terrorist Fighters.The Mediterranean Sea has been a crossroad of population movements and migrations for millennia, including from your region, the Baltic, if you consider the communities with Viking roots, which can still be identified today.In the very recent years, the rate of population movements across the Mediterranean has increased exponentially, pushed by conflicts and political instability in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as by poverty, unemployment, poor governance, corruption, aggressive foreign investments, and the lack of capacity in mitigating the consequences of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the Sahel region. All this, not to mention the terrorist activities carried out in that region by criminal groups such as Boko Haram.Among our constituency, countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Greece, Italy and Turkey are struggling to cope either with the influx of asylum seekers or economic migrants, while maintaining their primary obligation to their own populations to provide services, jobs, and security.When we speak about refugees, just to give you an indication, Jordan, on its own territory, is burdening most of the humanitarian aid provided to Syrian refugees, who exceed 1.5 million and have reached 20% of the national population. In fact, only one third of the international assistance pledged to Jordan has been received. This data was given to us by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Jordan during the PAM Mission to the Middle East, which took place in mid July. Similar numbers can be used for Turkey. However, as you know, there is a huge difference in the way international assistance that was mobilized for these countries.On the other hand, on the issue of economic “illegal” migrations from Africa, the matter is very different. While the majority refugees one day will eventually return to their countries, the African exodus is a different game. It is a one-way ticket.Specialised agencies indicate that the population of Africa, set at 1.3 billion people today, will reach - by 2050 - 2.3 billion. Nigeria alone will reach 1 billion. According to a recent study, every day, in Africa, 33,000 young people arrive on an already saturated employment market. Only 40% of them will be lucky enough to find a job. By 2050, Africa’s youth population alone is expected to reach over 830 million.At the present demographic pace, no Development Goal will be sustainable. At the same time, and faced with the tip of the iceberg related to this unprecedented exodus, the 28-nation European Union are still incapable to agree on a much-needed coherent approach to manage the influx of migrants from Africa, hiding themselves behind the Dublin Directive. As a positive sign, the four European leaders, who met in Paris last week, have clearly acknowledged that the system must be changed. EU border countries cannot be left alone to face the crisis. How this will be implemented at the EU level remains the big challenge.Over 450,000 people have reached Italy in the last two and half years. Since January 2017, some 114,000 economic migrants have crossed the Mediterranean by boat on its central route. The vast majority arrive in Italy before attempting to continue their journey on to other EU members. An estimated 14,000 have died during the crossing in the last five yeras.Last July, in Tallinn, the Home Affair Ministers of the EU states, for the first time, acknowledged that “the situation in the Central Mediterranean Sea and the resulting pressure on Italy are causes for great concern for all the member states”. They also reached an "agreement on using all the available means” to reduce migratory pressure in the Mediterranean Sea, first and foremost by making “greater efforts in Libya” and in the other third countries to prevent departures. This approach is similar to the solution used by the EU to close the Eastern corridor, where Turkey operates as a buffer border, having received six billion Euro to act as a barrier.The “Libyan solution” was discussed more in detail, a week ago in Paris, where the political leadership of Spain, France, Germany and Italy, met in with the Presidents of Niger and Chad, as well as the Prime Minister of Libya, to discuss on how to ease the EU's migrant crisis.EU nations are indeed keen to transfer the problem elsewhere. They offer development aid and generous funding to their African partners in return for stopping the flow of economic migrants and asylum seekers. They seek improved border controls and patrolling of the waters around Libya, as well as development aid to create jobs in Africa. Libya, Chad and Niger are key to this plan. However, national agenda and interests of some key European countries in Libya often collide and compete, so rendering more difficult the discussions, in spite of the large funds available.The system seems to work, as in August 2017 the influx of illegal migrants from Libya to Italy has been drastically reduced by 68% compared the earlier months of the year. Under a growing domestic pressure led by populist movements, and in the absence of a European common position, Italy held direct negotiations with Libyan leadership in Tripoli and Tobruk, the majors of Libyan southern cities on the routes across Sahara, armed militias and the command of the Coast Guard. Some international humanitarian organizations have expressed concerns about the treatment being reserved to the migrants by Libyans. The answer by Europe to these organizations is easy: we will fund your presence in Libya so that you can oversee the migrant and refugee centres, and so ensure the best conditions. The proposed creation of “Hot-Spots” - a kind of transition and screening camps - in Niger and Chad would further externalize the European southern borders. In these regions, organizations such as UNHCR and IOM should be able to identify those entitled to the refugee status and repatriate the economic migrants. As Europe outsourced two years ago its eastern border to Turkey to stop the migration flow, now Europe attempts to do the same with Niger and Chad creating a buffer zone south of the Sahara.However, this structural exodus is a time bomb, and not only for Europe. Morocco, Algeria and Egypt are now countries of destination as well. This situation led PAM and the Pan African Parliament to work together very closely in order to share experiences and strategies to tackle the phenomena in a consistent manner.PAM, due to its geopolitical composition, is strongly committed to encourage enhanced parliamentary cooperation and collective legislative actions in dealing with the problems and challenges related to migration and trafficking. Our Assembly has always been active since the early years of its establishment in the promotion and protection of human rights, particularly on human trafficking, by organizing dedicated parliamentary hearings, with the participation of the UN Counter Terrorism Committee, UNODC, the International Organization for Migrations, INTERPOL, Frontex, and the Italian Coast Guard. We also organised a series of dedicated induction seminars for our parliamentarians on Human Rights, in cooperation with UNHCR and the European Court of Human Rights. Do not forget that, due to the “illegal” nature of the economic migration, often victims and traffickers are on the same side.Human trafficking is also a huge criminal business. The International Crisis Group estimates that people-smuggling through Libya alone generates annual revenues of between 1 and 1.5 billion dollars.Recently, at the request of the new President of the United Nations General Assembly, Minister Lajčák of Slovakia, PAM will also contribute to the drafting of the UN Global Compact on Migration. In addition, in this regard, PAM will organize, in Malta on 16 and 17 November 2017, in cooperation with the IPU and with the support of the Maltese MFA, a two-day international conference on Mass Population Movements from Africa to Europe. The focus will be root causes, the role of the Mediterranean countries, as well as economic, social and security challenges, and lasting solutions. We will also associate European and African key players. You are all welcome to attend.I spoke about Migration. Integration, at least for what Europe is concerned, is another key issue, especially for what concerns extra-European migrants, if we put aside, for the time being, the possible internal consequences of the Brexit.Many experts highlight the perceived failure of the French and Belgian models confronted to the terrorist threat. Many young people from “la Banlieu – the people of periphery”, are born in our countries from non-European parents, and in extreme cases express their difficulties of integration and hate for the host societies, where they grew up, by joining ISIS or carrying out “low-cost” terrorist attacks. Furthermore, some Imams, in the case of Islamic communities, indicate publically that the way to follow in Europe is not integration but cohabitation. This concept challenges directly the many statements by our political leaders who, to reassure our citizens, indicate integration as the solution to what some analysts present as a new Clash of Civilizations. I will be happy to hear your opinion on this issue.I wish to conclude by reiterating PAM’s commitment to deal with these crucial issues and to work together with you, in a close and structured cooperation, through our parliamentary networks, to achieve respect for human rights, ease the suffering of civilians in regional conflicts, strengthen the rule of law, and consolidate more coordinated efforts to fight against human trafficking, while assisting the most vulnerable members of society.Thank you