Migration at top of Windhoek Dialogue agenda

The causes of migration and ways to address them were the main topics of today’s EPP Group meeting with its counterparts from African states (Windhoek Dialogue meeting). Organised on the margins of the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly, the meeting was co-chaired by MEPs Gay Mitchell and Filip Kaczmarek, both EPP Group Spokesmen on development policy. Father Hagos Hayish, Secretary-General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Ethiopia, was a special guest at the Dialogue.

“We need to find the solutions with compassion. On the one hand, immigration is a difficult and controversial issue of access to Europe and of EU visa policy, and on the other hand there is a humanitarian crisis that lies behind it”, Gay Mitchell said. “Some believe that the state can do everything, others think that the private sector can do everything. Our approach is that enterprise and social justice go hand in hand. We are for creating jobs and wealth, and for decent and accountable public services. But we also need to talk about responsibility because with every right comes responsibility for ourselves and for others”, he added.

“We can’t prevent people from seeking a better life. Better protection of our borders will not resolve the problem of migration. We should implement solutions that will weaken the demand for illegal immigration and root out the motivations of people who want to leave, who are even prepared to risk their lives. In the longer term, our help should contribute to the improvement of the living conditions in the places where the migrants come from”, insisted Filip Kaczmarek.

The Windhoek Dialogue was set up in 1998 as a framework for cooperation between the EPP Group in the European Parliament and the Union of African Parties for Democracy and Development (UAPDD), founded to facilitate co-operation and exchange between political parties in Africa who work to promote democracy, good governance and civic rights.