Call for a citizen summit on migration
Paris | 05.09.2008 22:08 | Anti-racism | Globalisation | Migration
France has chosen migration as one of the priority areas for the French presidency of the European Union, due to take place in the last six months of 2008.
The Council of the European Union will meet in Paris on October 13th and 14th with the aim of adopting a “European pact on immigration and asylum”. Moreover, the second Euro-African inter-ministerial conference on migration and development will take place in Paris also, on October 20th and 21st, following the first of such conferences, in Rabat in 2006.
France is planning to suggest to its European counterparts that they adopt agreements on a “concerted management of migration flows and co-development” as a model of negotiation through which it will promote selective immigration, and ask Southern countries to accept its nationals back home as well as those of other countries who have passed through their territory.
The organisations signing this call are concerned by the treatment given to migration flows, which is essentially focused on security and is responsible for thousands of deaths; and by the economic choices made that keep African countries away from development. They are launching this call to give a voice to European and African civil societies.
It is high time that the issue of migration and development be really considered in terms of common interests: i.e. interests shared by the countries of origin, by the countries migrants go through, by the destination countries, but most importantly, the interests of the migrants themselves.
We want another Europe than the one that is becoming a fortress and that is taking disproportionate measures to prevent people from entering its territory and expel those who have entered. We reject the systematisation of detention centres and forced returns.
Following the first non-governmental Euro-African conference on “migration, freedom of circulation and fundamental rights”,
we are calling for a wide participation, in Paris on October 17th and 18th, to promote another vision of immigration and another type of relationship between the European Union, Africa and the rest of the world. We will hold the second non-governmental Euro-African conference, organise a big rally to request another European policy, and enjoy a giant concert.
France is planning to suggest to its European counterparts that they adopt agreements on a “concerted management of migration flows and co-development” as a model of negotiation through which it will promote selective immigration, and ask Southern countries to accept its nationals back home as well as those of other countries who have passed through their territory.
The organisations signing this call are concerned by the treatment given to migration flows, which is essentially focused on security and is responsible for thousands of deaths; and by the economic choices made that keep African countries away from development. They are launching this call to give a voice to European and African civil societies.
It is high time that the issue of migration and development be really considered in terms of common interests: i.e. interests shared by the countries of origin, by the countries migrants go through, by the destination countries, but most importantly, the interests of the migrants themselves.
We want another Europe than the one that is becoming a fortress and that is taking disproportionate measures to prevent people from entering its territory and expel those who have entered. We reject the systematisation of detention centres and forced returns.
Following the first non-governmental Euro-African conference on “migration, freedom of circulation and fundamental rights”,
we are calling for a wide participation, in Paris on October 17th and 18th, to promote another vision of immigration and another type of relationship between the European Union, Africa and the rest of the world. We will hold the second non-governmental Euro-African conference, organise a big rally to request another European policy, and enjoy a giant concert.
Paris
