“We’re under a moral obligation to save human lives. Building walls cannot be the answer, nor can viewing today’s migrant crisis from a security perspective alone. We cannot equate migrants and terrorists,” Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Paolo Gentiloni, said this morning when opening the OSCE conference on “Refocusing Migration and Security: Bridging National and Regional Responses.”
The Security Day, the first of 2016 and the tenth of its kind, was aimed at reaffirming the need for greater accord among the different national strategies and between these strategies and regional actions regarding the migrant and refugee flows affecting Europe.
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier called for the “agenda for sustainable development” in the migrants’ countries of origin to be rethought. The President of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, also offered his opening remarks. The debate was attended, among others, by Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexei Meshkov.
Participants in the Security Days, especially senior officials from OSCE member countries, representatives from other International Organisations, and experts from academia and civil society, offered their personal views to create a more open and fluid discussion. The OSCE Secretariat will handle the follow-up of the conference and publish a report containing excerpts of all the statements and a set of recommendations for the OSCE’s 57 Member States.