BM 68 – ESU advocates for a common concrete European Migration Policy
Migration is a human phenomenon: human beings have always been moving around the planet for many different reasons and will always be doing so. Sometimes this phenomenon seems to concentrate only in one area and in one direction: this is certainly the case of Europe becoming an area of immigration, mainly from Africa and the Middle East due to the worsening of the living conditions in those regions.
Millions are fleeing, putting their own lives at risk to go through a journey under very inhumane conditions, hoping to reach safety on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. Many of them are mainly looking to fulfil their human rights including the right to education, whether to start from the beginning or to finish it at the highest level, which would otherwise be impossible for them to achieve. ESU supports the right of all people to freely and safely pursue education. ESU has already engaged itself in the SIRIUS Network, which has delivered its SIRIUS2020 document on how to expand access to quality education for migrant children and youth. The network continues to be active, delivering new projects under both the Erasmus+ Programme as well as the Horizon2020 programme. Further, ESU has also recently engaged itself in the MADAD Fund, which seeks to grant scholarships specifically to Syrian students fleeing the civil war. It is clear that Europe systematically lacks an efficient policy on migration and inclusion, which as a consequence has led increasing tension inside countries, especially in the border area, and a tragically high number of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea.
We cannot keep ignoring the situation, we need to help those countries, to stop human trafficking, to help the people cross our borders and we need to welcome them as a whole and not leave only the border countries to deal with the constant situation of emergency. Quality citizen education plays a unique role combating hatred and fostering cross-cultural understanding, something that is essential if we truly want to tackle these problems headfirst. ESU urges the European Union and all European countries for the building and the implementation
of a common and concrete human rights oriented migration policy.
