On 19 October 2016 the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities adopted a report assessing the situation of local and regional authorities who face the challenge of receiving and integrating asylum-seekers and migrants with limited means and in the absence of a clear and coherent European-wide legislative framework.
The Committee approved a resolution inviting local authorities, who must put in place policies and concrete projects to facilitate the insertion of migrants and refugees into the host society, ensuring respect for their human rights and dignity, to work with local partners and coordinate their work both with other local authorities and with their national governments.
The Committee also approved a recommendation to member States asking them to provide legislative and financial support to local authorities and to remove administrative and practical barriers encountered by asylum-seekers and thus speed up the asylum application process. The recommendation also asks governments to ensure that reception centres do not become detention centres, particularly for children and minors.
The importance of adopting an early integration perspective of newcomers, regardless of their status as asylum-seekers or refugees, is underlined in both documents.
The resolution and recommendation will be adopted (with amendments, if any) by the Congress at its 32nd session in March 2017.