Statement by the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean
on new migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) expresses its strong concern on the continuing tragedy of hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers losing their lives while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach the European shores.
More than 2500 people have been reported dead since the beginning of this year, with an exponential increase in recent days. More than 250 thousand migrants are estimated by both the United Nations and the IOM to have already arrived, mostly in Greece and Italy. This exodus, which is touching also a number of transit countries, like the FYROM, Serbia, France and Hungary, shows that the measures so far adopted at the European and national levels are far from being adequate to address the root causes and manage the flow itself.
This dramatic phenomenon requires a new and urgent approach based on more coherence and solidarity among the EU member states, beyond the mere financial support and rescue operations.
PAM calls on its member national parliaments to encourage healthy and courageous debates, above partisan politics, in order to find common agreement on the way forward in dealing with the migration phenomenon, which is not a temporary crisis, but a long term aspect of present and future geopolitical developments.
At the same time, PAM calls on the international community and on its members to provide all the necessary assistance to those countries of the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, which are hosting millions of refugees, and to work effectively towards putting an end to the conflict in Syria and Libya.
Malta, 17 August 2015