French Migrant Charities Believe UN Pact On Migration Symbolic, Will Not Help Refugees

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2018) The associations helping migrants in France, one of the countries that has signed the UN global compact on migration, told Sputnik that the document is only symbolic and will fail to have a significant impact on French policies and dire migrant reception conditions.

On Monday, 164 countries adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said provided a platform for "humane, sensible, mutually beneficial action" on migration. The UN migration pact has triggered division amid currently tough migration situation, with a number of states, including Austria and the United States, pulling out of the document. A counter-pact rally is scheduled to take place in Brussels on Sunday.

"It's a general idea of accepting people, of non-rejecting the foreigners at least. It goes in a good direction, but in the form of an intention, a general idea, and not a precise engagement in regard to concrete measures. We have to see whether each state will make it a principle ... I think [the UN global compact] won't change a thing," Christian Salome, the president of the French migrant association L'Auberge des Migrants, said.

Commenting on the decision of some countries to refrain from joining the UN global pact on migration, the association's president said that such stance has been driven by the economic problems in those states.

"There are many states, which want to close up, and it's understandable in the period of impoverishment. And the states refrained from signing the compact to please those circles in favor of closing up," Salome said.

Claire Millot, the secretary general of the French migrant charity Association Salam, expressed doubt that the UN agreement would have positive impact as it does not have any legally binding effect.

"Symbolically it's important, but unfortunately it is just symbolic, in concrete terms we do not expect any changes on the ground. In the day-to-day reality we will not see any difference I'm afraid," Millot told Sputnik.

Despite the fact that France supported the pact, it is unlikely to change the country's migrant policies, the Association Salam's secretary general added.

"The reality is that our government is not ready to make a slightest effort for better reception [of migrants]. France pretends to do it, [French President Emmanuel] Macron made a speech accusing Italy for not receiving Aquarius [migrant ship], but France did not let Aquarius in either. So one thing is having a beautiful discourse, and the other is the reality, which is very tough. And the pact that was just voted I'm afraid will not change anything," Millot underlined.

France, as well as a number of other European states, has been significantly affected by the ongoing migration crisis. One of the French northern-coast cities, Calais, which is located near the French side of Channel Tunnel connecting the country with the United Kingdom, has for years been home to hundreds of migrants trying to cross the border. In 2016, the migrant camp in Calais was dismantled due to the horrible living conditions there. Even though the camp was dismantled, asylum seekers and refugees still arrive to the city and are forced to stay on French soil.

In 2017, over 100,000 migrants and refugees applied for asylum in France, which became the highest number in the past 40 years. In January, then French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said that around 26,000 illegal migrants were sent back in 2017, noting that forced returns had increased by 14 percent compared to previous years.