Brussels, 03/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 3 April, European and African leaders agreed on a five-point action plan to prevent any more dramas arising from migration, such as the shipwreck at Lampedusa, of the Sicilian coast, on 3 October of last year, which left 300 African migrants dead. In the adoption of a specific declaration on mobility and migration, the EU in the African countries committed to “fight irregular migration, by promoting comprehensive and efficient cooperation to avoid the dramatic consequences of irregular migration and to safeguard the lives of migrants”. This action plan will run until 2017, when the next summit is scheduled. The human and social impact of irregular migration should be countered effectively, reads the declaration of the EU/Africa summit.
Specifically, the plan is focused around: - combating the trafficking in human beings (reinforcing partnership and migration in terms of prevention, protection and prosecution and fighting against those taking advantage of all these forms of exploitation); - cooperation to prevent the dramatic consequences of illegal migration and safeguard the lives of migrants (prevention, strengthened migration and border management, the fight against the smuggling of migrants, returns and readmissions); - strengthening the nexus between development and migration; - promoting legal migration and mobility; - reinforcing international protection “including through the implementation of international and regional instruments for the protection of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons”. The respect of the fundamental human rights of migrants, irrespective of their legal status, is a cross-cutting issue of “our cooperation”, the action plan concludes. (SP)