Senator Lhou Lmarbouh, Honorary President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), addressed the Session “Ensure fair, smart and dignified labour migration: challenges and opportunities” on the occasion of the International Conference “Promoting better regional cooperation towards smart and humane migration across the Mediterranean”, being held in Malta on 16-17 November 2017.
The Conference for parliaments from the European Union and from the Mediterranean region is organized jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliament of Malta and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.
The session presented trends on labour migration across the Mediterranean. It also explored ways to further promote labour migration that is beneficial to migrants, receiving countries and countries of origin alike. The session addressed the effects of existing bilateral agreements to channel labour migration. It looked at regional and national policies on labour migration and identified opportunities to expand regular labour migration.
With reference to the flow of migration, Sen. Lmarbouh said that it is necessary to work with the countries of origin to deal with the structural problems that push people to emigrate.
In this context, PAM had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pan-African Parliament on the occasion of the 11th Plenary Session in Porto, Portugal. “The purpose of the agreement is to increase the dialogue and the active cooperation between the parliamentarians of our regions to face the challenges related to migration”. The PAM Hon. President said.
Sen. Lmarbouh underscored the fact that the majority of bilateral agreements on migration are developed on the north-south axis; an understandable phenomenon if one imagines that 85% of recent migrants in Europe come from Africa and Anatolia, and that Europe is the most developed economic zone in the Mediterranean.
Therefore, the implementation of cooperation agreements at the South-South level should be one of our priorities so that many sub-Saharan workers who move to MENA countries are not left without clear and fair regulations. Also, existing agreements must be made more extensive and detailed.
At the legislative level, parliamentarians have a duty to intensify efforts to remove barriers for access to basic services and social benefits for all migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, without xenophobic reactions. “Fair and equitable treatment, that is what we must offer, treatment no less favorable than that to our citizens, treatment contrary to discrimination in the workplace and ensuring reasonable living conditions”, Sen. Lmarbouh said.
One must remember that migrants are a resource for the receiving countries, especially for European states where the birth rate is negative. Indeed, according to the United Nations by 2050 Europe will be the only continent with a declining population and, consequently, an elderly population. On the contrary, the African population will grow by 1.3 billion people in the next 20 years. The working-age population will therefore be almost totally concentrated in the south of the Mediterranean.
In his concluding remarks Sen. Lmarbouh proposed a new and more generous contribution by raising the current 0.70% dedicated to assistance to a more equitable 1.00% of the GDP. Sen. Lmarbouh invited parliamentarians to promote this initiative at the national level. This “Marshall Plan for Africa” is also being endorsed by the Sovereign Order of Malta. His Excellency Alberto di Luca, the Order’s Ambassador to Serbia, in his contribution at the Malta Conference, underscored the importance that an increased global revision of governments’ contributions to the coordination and management of this phenomenon could reap higher benefits especially within the framework of the concept to help these people to live with dignity in their ocuntries.