fbpx
childfund logo
NGO’s Strongly Condemn New EU Policies to Contain Migration
+
Jun 27, 2016
E
27618 Views
l
t
Tweet

ChildFund Alliance is one of 100 Civil Society organisations to issue a hard hitting statement condemning EU Migration Policy ahead of this weeks important European Council gathering.

One of the Many families escaping conflict by fleeing to Europe

Many people escaping violence in Syria and other countries come through the Serbia-Croatia border, where Swiss children’s aid organisation and ChildFund partner Terre des Hommes-Lausanne has set up tents for families to rest. Photo from TDH-Lausanne

Dublin, June 27th, 2016

Brian Mac Neill

Not only is current EU migration policy manifestly ‘not working’, it is in reality, deeply flawed and runs counter to the very humanitarian principals that represent some of the core vales at the heart of the European project.   That’s the message that has been transmitted to European leaders ahead of this weeks gathering of the European Council  (28-29th June) to discuss a new Partnership Framework with ‘third’ (i.e. No-EU) countries.  Its an unequivocally strong message to the EU Council as befits the seriousness of the migrant crisis Europe has been faced with in recent times, and its failure thus far, to come up with an acceptable formula for dealing with it that fulfils its humanitarian mandate.

ChildFund Ireland is one of the signatories of the joint statement through our membership of the ChildFund Alliance.  The protection of children is our number one priority and as the statement catalogues, children have been adversely affected by current policies with many children housed in closed detention facilities and other wholly unsuitable environments.  This is an unacceptable situation that deprives children of their fundamental human rights as enshrined in goal 16.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

There is also grave concern among civil society about the proposed financing for the proposed Partnership Framework and the priority given to stopping migration .  This proposal has the potential to re-orientate Europe’s current development programming towards enforcement and containment, utterly conflicting with the stated goal of development cooperation to eradicate poverty for the benefit of people in need,  as enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty.

You can read the full text of the joint statement signed by 100 civil society organisations here: Final joint NGO statement with signatories

ChildFund Ireland

 

 

please support our work for
disadvantaged children today


how you can help