European Union

EU leaders are set to drop Europe's commitment to a foreign policy that defends universal values – especially human rights – in favour of a short-sighted migration control scheme, Oxfam says.

With their response to migration, the European Union and its member states risk further undermining  their credibility and authority in the defence of human rights, more than 120 NGOs have warned.

The European Union is set to open a dark chapter in its history unless it rejects the European Commission’s proposal on migration, a coalition of more than 120 NGOs warns.

EU governments are unwilling to tackle large-scale tax avoidance of multinational companies, Oxfam says in reaction to a new directive formally approved today.

With its new ‘migration compact’, the EU rewriting its foreign policy so that it serves the single objective of stopping people from coming to Europe, Oxfam said.

Oxfam, together with a coalition of development NGOs, calls on European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to make Europe become a leader on the global agenda for development and the fight against poverty.

Despite 800 people drowning off Lampedusa in the Mediterranean on this day last year, Europe is still failing to deal effectively with the migration crisis, said Oxfam in a new report today, “EU hotspots spread fear and doubt”.

Deportations of refugees and migrants from Greece to Turkey must be halted immediately and people wanting to seek asylum should not be kept in detention, said Oxfam, Norwegian Refugee Council and Solidarity Now today in Greece. 

The European Commission has missed yet another chance to effectively end tax havens. Today’s tax transparency proposal is not sufficiently ambitious and too limited in its scope for that task.

New proposals from the European Commission on migration are a first step toward creating safe and legal routes for people on the move, says Oxfam.