In light of the refugee crisis affecting the Mediterranean region, the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP), as an institution working for peace and security in Catalonia and the world, declares that we are facing a European and international humanitarian and migratory crisis, which cannot be treated as a sudden emergency. This crisis also represents a political and institutional crisis for the European Union. It is a crisis that undermines the credibility of the EU as an area of security and well-being and as a player that traditionally defends advanced policies regarding human rights, cooperation and peacebuilding. Therefore, despite the emergency, solutions must deal not only with the symptoms, but especially with the structural causes.
In order to overcome this situation, ICIP considers essential that the international community implement the following measures and challenges:
Increase the reception of refugees in Europe, ensuring relatively long stays.
Avoid isolated and contradictory actions by EU member states regarding the number and conditions of stay of refugees until there is a common asylum policy.
Analyze the structural causes that are behind migration, especially those related to armed conflict.
Promote an international initiative, led by the United Nations, aimed at offering safe and humane alternatives to refugees: legal, managed and controlled settlement.
Undertake a major reform of EU migration and asylum policies, according to international law commitments, to ensure the legitimacy of the EU.
Implement joint initiatives, based on coercive measures and economic alternatives, to fight international mafias.
Review the international humanitarian aid system, working together with local stakeholders, putting into practice what was agreed to by experts years ago.
Make every effort to end the war in Syria and Libya, and to end extremism and repression in the countries of the region, particularly in Afghanistan and Eritrea.
09.01.2015
