Illegal migration update statement from the EPC

On the occasion of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Yerevan, the leaders of Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their commitment to working together to tackle illegal migration.

At the Copenhagen EPC summit, leaders identified several critical lines of effort in pursuit of a ‘whole of route’ approach to tackling illegal migration. They underlined the need to take action against smugglers, ensure domestic and international frameworks are robust, accelerate returns, forge new partnerships, manage upstream migration effectively, and tackle the instrumentalisation of migration, among other issues. Critically, they also agreed on the need to support one another in these efforts.

This year, in the face of significant displacement across Sudan, the Horn of Africa and wider Middle East, these priorities remain as vital as ever and, also on the basis of the lessons learned from the 2015 migration crisis and to avoid a similar situation in the future, leaders agreed on how best to prepare and coordinate efforts.

They agreed on the importance of:

● Surveillance and monitoring: ensuring up-to-date information and monitoring is shared to best support preparedness and a coordinated response.

● Humanitarian assistance: identifying opportunities for targeted interventions to help those in need, and deter flows from source.

● Working with international organisations: partnering with, and supporting the work of key agencies and bodies like UNHCR, the IOM and the Council of Europe.

● Security: maintaining a core focus on security, protection and the effective integrity of both land and maritime borders.

● Targeting organised immigration crime: deploying targeted interventions against people smugglers and human traffickers as well as their supply chains, including through the use of sanctions.

● Governance: ensuring frameworks – both domestic and international – are safeguarded from abuse, so they can meet the demands of the day and so assistance can be targeted to those in need.

● Returns: ensuring robust agreements are in place to both deter migrant movements from source and transit countries and alleviate domestic pressure, including through new approaches.

● A systems-wide response: using all of the above levers, policies and diplomatic tools, to coordinate international efforts and protect the integrity of our borders.

Significant progress has been made across last year’s statement, including new measures, partnerships and successes in the disruption of smuggling activity continent-wide.

Leaders agreed to continue the focus on the most pressing global migration issues, and on opportunities for future cooperation, including at the next EPC Summit in Ireland.