Stability Pact activities in the field of refugee return, migration and asylum, fighting trafficking in human beings, creating housing and employment opportunities as well as border management, including for example visa regimes or mobility programs for students, all touch upon the same topic: population movement.  These activities are dispersed within the SP working structures and are under all of the three Working Tables.  At a meeting of Justice and Interior Ministers in Tirana, Soeren Jessen-Petersen in his capacity as chairman of both the Refugee and Asylum & Migration Initiatives in the Pact, has outlined a streamlined and integrated approach for the years to come.  Ministers and high officials of eleven countries present in Tirana, including the Albanian co-hosts, agreed to support this integrated approach and defined six priorities on which to focus attention.

MARRI – Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative

So far, displacement matters were the responsibility of the Regional Return Initiative (RRI -Working Table I) while migration and asylum issues fell under Justice and Home Affairs in the Migration and Asylum Initiative (MAI - Working Table III).  Refugees return, settle locally or are increasingly integrated into national and regional development plans.  Other movements of people, either within or in transit through the region, continue to affect the entire area of Southeast Europe and neighbouring countries.  The management of and response to such movements, in the region and by the international community, including the Stability Pact, have to adapt to these realities.  Making best use of the fact, that regional cooperation is by now an established feature of the region, Ministers and the Stability Pact decided in Tirana to merge the two initiatives into a Regional Initiative to Manage and Stabilise Population Movements and to strengthen links with other relevant initiatives of the Stability Pact.  The new initiative, to be known by its acronym MARRI, will cover:

-          asylum

-          legal migration

-          illegal migration

-          border management

-          visa policy and entry policies

-          return/settlement of refugees/displaced persons

While defining these areas more precisely in the months to come and to develop a regional roadmap for action, due attention will be paid to coordinate closely with actions and initiatives already underway elsewhere, inside or outside the Stability Pact.  In view of the objective to manage and stabilise population movements in South Eastern Europe it is also indicated to broaden the geographic scope beyond the five SAP countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Yugoslavia) and to include neighbouring candidate countries Bulgaria and Romania as well as Moldova to participate in the process.

Annex:

-        Strategy Paper on MARRI – Migration, Asylum, Refugee Regional Initiative