Upon the initiative of the Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, African and European Countries of transit and destination of migration flows are meeting at the Farnesina today for the second edition of the conference ‘A Shared Responsibility for a Common Goal – Solidarity and Security’. The Minister explained: “It is a new dialogue format based on a strengthened partnership but increasingly effective in the integrated management of migration flows, capable of combining principles of solidarity and security. These principles require that the conditions in which some migrants in transit countries are trapped be made human and that the local communities of these Countries be assisted with a view of putting a stop to the human trafficking phenomenon that afflicts the Mediterranean.”
Today’s event, which picks up from the joint declaration adopted in Rome in the first edition of the conference last 6 July, is attended by representatives of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Libya, Malta, the Netherlands, Niger, Spain, Sudan and Tunisia, as well as of the UNHCR, the OIM, the OSCE and of Bulgaria, as the rotating president of the European Union Council.
The conference will open with remarks by Minister Alfano, the Director General of the OIM, William Lacy Swing, the Secretary General of the OSCE, Thomas Greminger, and Bulgaria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Todor Stoyanov. The following working sessions will offer the opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the participating countries with the aim of adopting a common and joint approach in managing migrations, and also of taking stock of the progress made from last year in terms of reducing the flows and protecting the migrants.
Another highlight of the conference will be the presentation of investment and cooperation programmes to help the African countries of transit to manage flows and provide the populations along migration routes with alternatives to an economy based on human trafficking.
The conference will also focus on supporting assisted return and emergency evacuation programmes through the OIM and the UNHCR and on highlighting the role of transit countries in negotiating the two global compacts on migration and refugees with a view to protecting human rights and going to the root of the causes of migration.