Annan tells European Parliament that better migration policies will benefit all

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged the European Union to better manage its legal immigration and strengthen the capacity of developing countries to give refugees adequate protection.

"Migrants need Europe, but Europe also needs migrants," Mr. Annan told the European Parliament at a ceremony where he received the 2004 Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. A closed Europe would be "meaner, poorer, weaker, older" than an open Europe, which would be "fairer, richer, stronger, younger."

"Without immigration, the population of the soon-to-be 25 member States of the EU [European Union] - 452 million in 2000 - would drop to under 400 million people by 2050," he said. "Were this to happen, jobs would go unfilled and services undelivered. Your economies would shrink and your societies could stagnate."

Noting that the Russian Federation, Japan and other Asian countries faced similar problems, he said immigration was an inevitable part of the solution.

"I would therefore encourage European states to open up greater avenues for legal migration - for skilled and unskilled workers, for family reunification and economic improvement, for temporary and permanent immigrants," Mr. Annan said.

Without minimizing the difficulties that migration could bring, he pointed out that migrants have made enormous contributions in science, academia, sports, the arts and government, "including some of you as members of this Parliament."

He also noted that 7 out of 10 refugees fled to developing countries, where resources are far more stretched and human rights standards more uneven than those in Europe. The EU should be among those helping to strengthen the capacity of poor countries to provide protection and solutions for refugees, he said.

He added that "when refugees cannot seek asylum because of offshore barriers, or are detained for excessive periods in unsatisfactory conditions, or are refused entry because of restrictive interpretations of the [1951 Refugee] Convention, the asylum system is broken and the promise of the Convention is broken, too."

European States, he said, should move towards a system processing of claims jointly and sharing responsibilities for refugees.

Above all, the Secretary-General advocated global partnerships to ensure that migration serves the interests of all.