Appointed Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on Migration and Refugees in December 2021, Leyla Kayacik took up her post in January, just over a month before the war in Ukraine began. “We had to react quickly”, she said in an interview with EUROPE, on Tuesday 17 May.
On 9 March, Leyla Kayacik brought together the network of ‘migration correspondents’ set up by her predecessor in 2019. “It is made up of contact points in the Member States’ interior ministries and allows for a great deal of information and best practice to be exchanged in a confidential manner. I can also clarify in real time what the relevant Council of Europe standards are in terms of the human rights of migrants and refugees and inform about the case law of the European Court of Human Rights”, explains the Special Representative.
“This has allowed us to identify areas for action in the frontline countries: 1) protection of vulnerable persons, based in particular on the European Convention on Human Rights, the one on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (known as the Istanbul Convention) and the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (known as the Lanzarote Convention); 2) access to health care, including psychological support; 3) linguistic integration; 4) access to education; 5) access to employment.
These last two points can be supported by the ‘European qualifications passport for refugees’ set up by the Council of Europe to measure the skills of people who have had to flee without their qualifications. It enables them to return to school or to access employment.
On each of these issues, we have tools that we can adapt to the current context: the group of independent experts that monitors the application of the ‘Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings’, as well as the one corresponding to the Lanzarote Convention, have published guidelines so that these texts can be implemented in the situation we are experiencing.
My role is also to coordinate all the Council of Europe services so that they act quickly and effectively.”
A coordination she carries out also with international organisations such as UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM and the European Union. “With one question at the centre of the discussions: What can you do? What can we do?”, she asked.
In parallel, Leyla Kayacik visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 4 and 6 May.
She will visit Poland at the end of May and Moldova in June.
“Moldova is a frontline country, not a member of the European Union and under military threat from Russia”, she said. “We are actively preparing my trip.” (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)