As European cities and communities that firmly believe in defending human rights, we have offered a new home to refugees and migrants for decades. We are unconditionally committed to humanitarian values, universal human rights, and the right to asylum, even in difficult times. Today, we see a wave of solidarity with refugees in our cities and regions. And yet: the migration management is inefficient and unbalanced creating a particularly strong burden on European border states. A pragmatic approach is thus needed in order to help refugees and relieve the cities in border states.
On June 25th-26th, the From the Sea to the City conference, co-organised by Tesserae, took place both online and in-person in Palermo. The event featured the launch of an important new declaration by mayors from across the EU demanding policy reforms for asylum seekers. The declaration, a section of which is quoted above, is available to read online, as are recordings of the conference panels from the event.
From Sea to the City builds on the Palermo Charter Process Platform (PCPP) a broad activists platform created in 2018, inspired by the freedom of international mobility of migrants declared in the Palermo Charter in 2015.
Photo credit: Bahar Kaygusuz & Seebruecke team
