OSCE parliamentarians travelling to Calais to examine conditions for refugees and migrants, provide policy recommendations

COPENHAGEN, 9 May 2016 – Members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Migration will be in Calais, France, this week to see the conditions for refugees and migrants seeking shelter in encampments there. The visit will serve as a fact-finding mission to enable the parliamentarians to gain a first-hand impression of conditions and to develop policy recommendations to improve the collective response to the refugee and migrant crisis.

The delegation will begin its field visit in Paris for a briefing at the Interior Ministry on the migrant situation in the Calais region before travelling to Calais Wednesday for working meetings and a field visit to the temporary reception centres in the Calais camp including facilities for women and children, followed by a visit to another camp near Dunkirk.

Hosted by OSCE PA Vice-President Alain Neri (MP, France), the delegation includes the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, Filippo Lombardi (MP, Switzerland), and parliamentarians from five other countries.

The OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration serves as a focal point for the OSCE PA’s work in the field of migration in all three dimensions of the OSCE: political and security questions; economic issues; and human rights and humanitarian questions. It was established following a unanimous decision taken by the Standing Committee at the OSCE PA’s Winter Meeting on 25 February 2016 in Vienna. The Calais field visit is the first official activity of the Ad Hoc Committee, whose future plans include further visits to migrant hotspots as well as policy-oriented events.

For more information on the Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, including its full membership and mandate, please click here.