Migration

Since issuing a special report on the Syrian refugee crisis in February 2013, the OSCE PA has increasingly devoted attention to this critical issue. As the crisis deepened in 2015, PA delegations visited a refugee camp in Harran, Turkey, and met with migrants, refugees and officials in Rome, at the First Aid Reception Center in Lampedusa and several reception centers for asylum seekers in Sicily.

The PA debated migration at each of its meetings in 2015, and at the 2016 Winter Meeting, the bureau of the Assembly's human rights committee issued a report, "Migration Crisis in the OSCE Area: Towards Greater OSCE Engagement." The report provided a thematic overview of PA activities on the migration crisis and offered lines of action for further OSCE work on the issue.

Following a decision taken by the Standing Committee at the 2016 Winter Meeting, the OSCE PA launched the Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, with Swiss parliamentarian Filippo Lombardi serving as its Chair, and holding its first meeting at the OSCE PA’s 25th Annual Session in Tbilisi. In February 2018, Nahima Lanjri (Belgium) succeeded Lombardi as Chair of the Committee, and two years later, Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden) took over as Acting Chair. (For a factsheet on the Committee's work, please click here.)  In August 2021, Vice-President Kristian Vigenin (Bulgaria) was appointed Chair by President Cederfelt and served until July 2022. The Rt Hon Mark Pritchard (United Kingdom) was appointed as the new Chair by President Cederfelt in July 2022. 

Serving as a focal point for the OSCE PA’s work in the field of migration in all three dimensions of the OSCE – political and security matters, economic issues, and human rights and humanitarian questions – the Ad Hoc Committee develops policy recommendations aimed at enhancing OSCE work in the field of migration and at improving the treatment of, and prospects for, migrants in OSCE countries.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Migration published the report "Ensuring a Coherent, Shared and Responsible Governance of Migration and Refugee Flows" at the 2017 Autumn Meeting in Andorra.

Below are links to press releases from recent years regarding the attention the OSCE PA has paid to this issue. Check back regularly for updates on the PA’s work.

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018 

2017

2016

2015

You will find information on the  Ad Hoc Committee on Migration on the next page.

  • Facebook
  • twir
  • in
  • inst
  • two
  • video