TRIPOLI November 22-23, 2006- Statement by Richard Williams, EU Representative ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles) EU -Africa Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development.

Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I would like to thank the Leader of the Revolution, Colonel Gadaffi and the Libyan government for their kind invitation to this important conference. For the first time African and European States are sitting in the same room to discuss migration, other than UN for a.

ECRE represents more than 80 refugee-assisting non-governmental organisations in 30 European countries. We are recognised by the European Council, European Parliament and European Commission as their main civil society interlocutor when it comes to European asylum and refugee policy and are a key partner for UNHCR. We are grateful to the European Union for approving recently the continuation of its generous contribution to our core costs.

We are keen to share our experience with the African Union and with networks of African NGOs and engage in the kind of South-North dialogue and learning that has been one of the themes of the past two days.

ECRE is committed to open and constructive dialogue with all parties interested in safeguarding the rights of refugees. Nevertheless, it is sometimes the role of NGOs to draw attention to the hard truths, much as the honourable gentleman from Ghana did yesterday.

There is much to be welcomed in the interventions we have heard and in the text of the conference Declaration. In particular, I would point to the identification of actions needed to safeguard the protection of refugees and to the recognition of the need for joined up policies and actions to address the root causes of migration, including forced migration. Nevertheless there are some gaps. Gaps in participation in this process, gaps in the policy framework being developed and a marked absence of solutions to the problem that gave rise to the inter-governmental dialogue that has culminated in this conference.

One important stakeholder is not formally represented here today: migrants and refugees themselves. I suspect, though, that many people in this room will have experienced exile in some form or another. ECRE is working with a fledgling network of refugee-run organisations many run by Africans, which, I am delighted to be able to inform you, will be launched in Brussels on 28 February 2007. I think I can take the liberty of inviting all of you to that event, so please mark your diaries.

This conference's Declaration has been largely prepared by experts, who met on Tuesday to finalise the text. I have the deepest respect for government experts, but would venture to suggest that States do not have a monopoly on expertise in this field. ECRE would be delighted to recommend experts from amongst our member organisations, many of whom are informed by their direct experience of assisting refugees and asylum seekers, as well their close partnerships with leading academics in the field. I have in mind not just future conferences similar to this one, but more targeted expert meetings, such as the ‘international platforms' proposed yesterday by Mr Frattini, Vice President of the European Commission.

Turning to the second gap: in the emerging policy framework. Some of the gaps are surprising, given that they are addressed in the African Union's Migration Policy Framework for Africa and are consistent with EU positions. For example, a recommended strategy in the Migration Policy Framework for dealing with protracted refugee situations in which people are effectively ‘warehoused' for years on end, is to: 

"Use voluntary repatriation [...], local integration [...] and resettlement, as applicable, to address protracted displacement situations through a comprehensive and integrated approach based on international solidarity and burden sharing".

In fact, we have heard little about local integration of refugees and nothing at all about resettlement, despite the support of the EU for using resettlement strategically to help other States better protect their refugee populations. Resettlement is a means to show solidarity in a very practical way, by protecting some of the most vulnerable refugees and offering a durable solution to those in protracted situations. We have heard a lot of talk about returns but no mention of any kind of monitoring mechanism to ensure that returns of asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected are sustainable and do not lead to repeat migration. The AU Migration Policy Framework describes as ‘most important' one of the strategies it recommends for protecting refugees and asylum seekers: 

"At highest levels, assembly of Heads of States and respective governments must be monitored as to their compliance to ratified instruments and be held accountable in the event of apparent failure to comply."

We have not heard much about sharing the burden of refugee protection, or as ECRE would prefer to call it, responsibility sharing. We hope that the phrase in today's Declaration, "Ensuring effective protection for refugees and internally displaced persons, including via regional protection" does not hint at a desire by Europe to shift rather than share the responsibility for protecting refugees.

Finally, I cannot see in the draft declaration any short or medium-term solutions to the problem that triggered the international dialogue that led to this conference: the deaths of thousands of people as they try to reach the EU from North Africa. It's clear that there is a willingness to offer migrants legal routes into Europe. But nobody is talking about providing refugees with an alternative to putting themselves into the hands of smugglers and traffickers. Far from it. Instead, we see increasing pressure on the EU's neighbours to prevent irregular migration into the EU, with the risk that States might take action that might interfere with the human right to leave any country. People fleeing persecution and gross violations of their human rights form a proportion of the ‘mixed flows' which are of concern to us all. The proportion may be small, but they are there. They need to be identified and offered protection. The question is, who identifies them, with what procedures and safeguards, and where will they be protected?

These questions need answering urgently and ideally in multilateral fora such as next year's Global Forum on International Migration, to be hosted by Belgium, or in a forum convened by the international organisation with a mandate for protecting refugees, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. I once heard it said that the ultimate test of any society is how it treats those to whom it owes nothing.

We have heard much during this Conference about maximising the benefits that migrants can bring both sending and destination countries. That is an important discussion. But we have heard surprisingly little about refugees, the people to whom we owe nothing - except respect for the fundamental human right, when all else fails, to flee for life and liberty.

Thank you.