The EU Thessaloniki Summit stressed the importance of migration related issues in Southeastern Europe and into the European Union. Against this background, the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe launched a Regional Programme of Action aiming at a better management of, and sustainable solutions to the problems of migration, asylum and refugee return in the Western Balkans. The Action Programme is the result of six months of preparations among states in the SEE region, other member states of the Stability Pact, the European Commission and relevant international organisations.

In spite of recent positive developments and the return of more than 1.5 million refugees since the end of the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo, the region still harbours one of the largest numbers of refugees in the world, with more than 1 million refugees and displaced persons desperate to resume normal lives as citizens in their old or new homes. Furthermore, persons from four (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYR of Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro) of the five Western Balkan States are still up on top of the lists of nationalities seeking asylum in Western European countries- even years after the Balkan wars have ended. A growing number among the more than 3 million people originating from SEE resident in Western Europe, begin to travel back to take part in the emerging democratisation and economic development process in the Western Balkans. Third-country nationals - moving with the help of traffickers or on their own initiative, are capitalizing on the relative weakness of existing border management in SEE to transit through the region on their way to Western European countries.

The MARRI Programme of Action will promote closer regional cooperation, recognising that migration, asylum and refugee movements are cross-border in nature and therefore require a coordinated cross-border approach. The fragmented way, in which European countries have attempted for years — often without much success — to deal with these issues, suggests that only a coherent, interrelated action can yield the desired results. Coordinating the policy responses to the mutually related issues of migration, asylum, border management, visa policies and refugee return is also vital in terms of state and human security. For these reasons, MARRI aims at coordinating actors responsible for foreign policy, for economic development, for security and for justice and home affairs from the Western Balkan countries and match them with their counterparts of other states and of international organizations.

Soren Jessen-Petersen, the Stability Pact Chair of the Migration, Asylum and Refugee Regional Initiative (MARRI), concluded: “There is a need to confront the threats that the irregular movement of people, often run by criminal networks, may pose to fragile democracies. But there is also an opportunity to channel the movements of migrants and returning refugees into a constructive participatory element in the process of economic reforms and development. Both challenges require a better management of population movements in the Western Balkans”.

The special features of the MARRI Programme of Action include:

¬ MARRI emphasizes the importance of action to move from a humanitarian refugee approach to an approach of citizenship and access for all refugees and displaced persons without discrimination to economic and social rights making it possible for them to return and integrate in a sustainable way. Such an approach is also conducive to better neighbourly relations and normalization in the region.

¬ MARRI stresses that control measures to manage migration, while necessary, is only one side of the coin. The other is alternative channels to promote freedom of movement for the citizens within the region and eventually with the larger Europe. Opening up for orderly migration in a gradual and balanced way is not only in the interest of economic development but it would also send a clear signal that the future of the citizens of the Western Balkans is as citizens of Europe. Such a signal is crucial as EU and Western Balkan member states convene for a summit in Thessaloniki next Saturday and for public support in the region for the painful reform measures necessary to reach the goal of European integration.

¬ MARRI underlines that Integrated Border Management is part and parcel of an overall regional security policy and can succeed only if it is an integral part of national and regional management policies covering the related issues of asylum, migration and visa policies. Against this background, the MARRI Programme of Action offers a sustained follow up to the Ohrid Regional Conference on Border Security and Management (22-23 May), cosponsored by NATO, the European Union, OSCE and the Stability Pact.

¬ Enhancing state security by equipping states to better manage migration, asylum and refugee return and promoting human security in order to better protect and empower citizens can only be successful with the active cross-border involvement of local and regional civil society. MARRI suggests specific action to develop and strengthen civil society in the management of population movements in the Western Balkans.

Final Draft Programme of Action