G8 and forced migrations

You might have recalled the G8 working dinner statement from about two weeks ago. Among other things they also discussed the topic of forced migrations. Both the UK and USA were advocating a case-by-case approach, whereas Italy suggested that the states should also focus on burden sharing ideas. We conducted an interview with all six member states present in our GA and asked them about their plans.

While on a very  fundamental basis they do seme to agree, we have noticed some differences in priorities. While some emphasize prevention of forced migrations and protection of forced migrants, others do put the responsibility of states and the policy of burden sharing rather high on their priority scale. Most of them have already discussed the topic also with member states outside the G8 coalition but it seems that some agreements have been made more or less on regional levels.

United Kingdom wants to focus on both prevention and protection of displaced persons (refugees and IDPs). The delegate of United States of America stressed that human trafficking should be addressed also as it is important for this topic. Italy agreed with the representative of UK about prevention and it also believes that all states should share their responsibility for preventing and protecting forced migrants. The main goals of Russian Federation are to reduce statelessness, to provide that basic principles in camps are not obstructed and delimited and to prevent the abuse of granted status. France's objectives are better prevention of froced migrations and to establish a policy of burden sharing. Germany stresses that forced migrations are a serious problem and the delegate also emphasized that burden sharing is one of the solutions, although some issues on the financial part should be included so that all member states participate more than they do right now.

And how do they plan to achieve these goals? UK says by connecting different states and coalitions, discussing these topics in greater details and to look for points of consensus. USA will be disucssing this with all member states as they would like to include all states and their perspectives. Also delegate of Italy emphasized the importance of cooperation with as many member states as possible and searching for compromises. Russian Federation wants to increase collaboration with UNHCR and other states and also the overall international cooperation - but they emphasize that it must be done without interfering in the internal affairs of states.

As they all mentioned cooperation with other states, we asked them which specifically did they have in mind. UK mentioned that many European states have expressed positions that are very common to theirs and they havealso been discussing it with Commonwealth nations which have been receptive for their opinions. USA has discussed the topic within the Organization of American States. Italy has cooperated with other states that have problems with forced migrations - either receiving or member sttaes. Within this topic the Russian Federation will cooperate with G8 but they also wish to cooperate with BRICS states. France has discussed it with EU and Turkey and some African states. Germany has been cooperating with other states, especially on G8 and EU basis but the delegate did not want to comment the cooperation in detail.

See more in the video below. In the second part the image is rather poor (blurry) because of some technical issues, but the speech is very clear - which matters the most.

Tamara Kajtazović