Brussels, 09/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the beginning of October, parliamentarians from the Council of Europe expressed “serious concerns about human rights” with regard to proposals on the opening of transit centres and the treatment of migrants in countries outside the EU. Similar measures have been taken in the past in other regions of the world. At the beginning of the 1990s, Haitians were intercepted at sea and redirected in this way as asylum seekers to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba). In this regard, the Assembly notes that the European Commission is planning a feasibility study on intra-territorial and extra-territorial treatment before the end of 2007. Parliamentarians believe that this solution should only be envisaged within a more global approach involving countries of origin, transit and destination. According to parliamentarians, it is necessary to begin with setting up these kinds of centres in EU countries before extending them to the rest of Europe or beyond. In cases where these centres are set up, parliamentarians consider that they should not be extended beyond the EU before they have ascertained whether the centres on Union territory function in full respect of all human and refugee standards and rights. Parliamentarians are calling on European countries to examine the regularisation programmes option, which remains an “extremely controversial question” and learn the lessons from previous programmes. They believe that regularisation programmes should only be one factor in a global strategy response to illegal immigration. Over the last 25 years in the European Union alone, more than twenty regularisation programmes have been completed that have allowed four million illegal immigrants to obtain residency and temporary or permanent work permits. The Assembly also congratulated the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on its work and made a heartfelt appeal for greater cooperation between the latter and the Council of Europe. (bc)