Europe

Eurostat reports that in the EU27, money sent by migrants to their former country of residence, usually referred to as workers' remittances, amounted to 31.8 bn euro in 2008, compared with 31.3 bn in 2007 and 19.4 bn in 2004. These figures include both intra-EU27 and extra-EU27 flows. The increase in workers' remittances over recent years was mainly due to a sharp rise in extra-EU27 flows (from 11.5 bn in 2004 to 22.5 bn in 2008), while intra-EU27 flows rose less rapidly (from 7.9 bn to 9.3 bn).

On 29 September 2008, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights (the Commissioner) issued a Viewpoint expressing his concern regarding the trend to criminalize the irregular entry and presence of migrants in Europe presented as part of a policy of migration management.

On 1 December 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon–the agreement reforming European Union institutions–was ratified, making the European Charter of Fundamental Rights (ECFR), a document that lays out the entire range of civil, political, economic and social rights of EU citizens and residents, legally binding. Europe's diverse citizenry is now–thankfully–better protected legally against discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

But Lisbon is no panacea to Europe’s current identity crisis. Europeans must also learn to live together.

Monthly Eurasylum interview with Dr. Imre Forgács, Hungarian Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement.

Eurasylum: As from this month Hungary, Belgium and Spain, are holding the trio EU Presidency until 30 June 2011. Can you guide us through the overall priorities of the Presidency in the field of immigration and asylum policy?

For its first Annual report on the violation of human rights at borders, Migreurop has chosen to maintain the four symbolic poles of the misdeeds of the policy enacted by the European Union in the field of immigration and asylum.