Strasbourg, 01/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the launch in Prague on 1 and 2 October of a pan-European platform on ethics and transparency in education, Sjur Bergan, director of the education department at the Council of Europe (COD), announced the holding of a seminar on 28 October on recognition of migrants' qualifications.
The seminar addresses a subject that will not be discussed in Prague and will be held under the aegis of the European Commission. It will bring together members of the COE's education department and representatives of national information centres for information about the recognition of academic and professional qualifications (ENIC-NARIC Centres) that have been set up in individual countries.
The problem we are facing is technical, explained Sjur Bergan. Refugees often have qualifications but don't necessarily have the paperwork to prove it and the question is how to avoid them having to re-study the same level again or have jobs closed to them unnecessarily.
The Council of Europe representative said there were international agreements protecting refugees' rights, such as the joint COE-UNESCO Convention of 1997 on the recognition of higher education diplomas. He said the Convention had been useful for refugees from the war in former Yugoslavia, and the 28 October seminar aims to re-launch this dynamic for the current refugee crisis.
Bergan stressed the importance of facilitating the process of refugees entering the jobs market. Forcing refugees to remain out of work has negative long-term impacts, he explained, and is a waste to society because when motivated and qualified people are excluded, that is a tragedy for each individual because they are relegated to second-class citizen category, which generated frustration or violence and extremism. He said that being passive for several years leads to a loss of qualification that will be damaging to the countries of origin that one wants to see developing. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)