Brussels, 20/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The first ministerial conference on migration and development between the EU and the African continent, which will take place in Tripoli on 22-23 November, will see the adoption of a joint statement on migration management and on an action plan targeting human trafficking, particularly that of women and children.
Ministers will firstly adopt a joint Africa-EU declaration, in which ways of using migration for the benefit of development will be set out. While giving a commitment on the essentials, the joint declaration will focus on action and will contain follow-up mechanisms. It will cover the whole range of migration issues, particularly: legal and illegal migration, migration and development, protection of refugees and the wider problems of peace, security and human rights. Development and Human Rights Commissioner Louis Michel is due to launch a short-term programme on immigration and development in Africa which will tackle the causes of migration. To this end, various actions will be undertaken, focussing on investment in labour intensive sectors and in rural areas combating the brain drain, good governance and human trafficking. Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini, who is responsible for justice, freedom and security, will also take part in the Tripoli ministerial meeting.
The Conference will also adopt the Ouagadougou Action Plan to combat human trafficking, particularly that of women and children. States will undertake to sign, ratify and fully apply the UN Convention on organised crime and its additional protocol on the fight against human trafficking, and will also do all they can to prevent such trafficking and to bring the necessary help and protection to victims of trafficking.
Mr Frattini will also hold bilateral talks with the Libyan authorities on illegal immigration. The Commission was contacted three weeks ago by Libya and indicated its willingness to work with it on this issue, particularly on reinforcing control of its southern land border.
The Commission is also expected to reaffirm its desire to have the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, accused of injecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus and held in prison in Libya for over seven years, released very soon. “We are hoping for a positive outcome to this affair. It will weigh heavy on the resumption of negotiations with Libya,” said a high ranking official of DG Justice, Freedom and Security. The verdict of the latest trial is expected on 19 December. The doctor and nurses are accused of injecting 426 children, 52 of whom have died, with AIDS in a hospital in Benghazi in the north of the country. They have always claimed they were innocent. In May 2004, they were condemned to death, but the Libyan Supreme Court ordered a retrial, which began in May 2006.
In its conclusions of 16 December 2005, the European Council adopted a “Global approach to migrations” with priorities for action centred on Africa and the Mediterranean, and called on the Commission to report one year later on progress in this area. The Commission will make this report on 30 November, publishing a communication which will list, in its annex, action taken so far and action planned for the future. (EUROPE will return to this in a later edition.) bc)