Division V Migration and asylum

Cooperation in this area intends to strengthen political dialogue, cooperation, exchange of knowledge and experience and the capacities of partner countries, civil society organisations and local authorities in order to support human mobility as a positive element of human development. Cooperation in this area, based on a rights-based approach encompassing all human rights, whether civil and political or economic, social and cultural, will address the challenges of migration flows, including South-South migration, the situation of vulnerable migrants such as unaccompanied minors, victims of trafficking, asylum seekers, migrant women, and the condition of children, women and families left in the countries of origin, by:

1. (a)

   promoting migration governance at all levels, with a particular focus on the social and economic consequences of migration, and recognising the key role of civil society organisations, including diaspora, and local authorities in addressing migration as an essential component of the development strategy;

2. (b)

   ensuring better management of migratory flows in all their dimensions, including through enhancing capacities of governments and other relevant stakeholders in partner countries in areas such as: legal migration and mobility; preventing irregular migration, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings; facilitating sustainable return of irregular migrants and supporting voluntary return and reintegration; integrated border management capacities; and international protection and asylum;

3. (c)

   maximising the development impact of the increased regional and global mobility of people, and in particular of well-managed labour migration, improving integration of migrants in countries of destination, promoting and protecting the rights of migrants and their families, through support to the formulation and implementation of sound regional and national migration and asylum policies, through integration of the migration dimension into other regional and national policies and through support for the participation of migrants' organisations and local authorities in policy formulation and in the monitoring of policy implementation processes;

4. (d)

   improving a common understanding of the migration and development nexus, including social and economic consequences of government policies, be they in migration, asylum or in other sectors;

5. (e)

   enhancing asylum and reception capacities in partner countries.

Cooperation in this area will be managed in coherence with the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and Internal Security Fund, with full respect for the principle of policy coherence for development.