Essen – ESI at public debate on confidence, values and Migration and Asylum Policy in Europe

Gerald Knaus, Michael Martens, and Serap Güler. Photo: ESI

ESI’s Gerald Knaus took part in the panel discussion Mercator Salon on "Can we make it? A Conversation on Confidence, Values and Migration and Asylum Policy in Europe", together with Serap Güler, State Secretary for Integration and Refugees of Nordrhein-Westfalen, and Michael Martens, Foreign Correspondent for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Athens, as moderator. The panel was followed by an open-floor debate with the 170 attendants, discussing the future of asylum and migration policy.

While in Essen, Stiftung Mercator recorded a video outlining ESI's proposals on migration and asylum policy (in German). The video explains why joint European reception centres for refugees in Europe are important and why Germany is a central actor in this debate:

• Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Andreas Ernst and Fabian Urech, "Gerald Knaus: 'Weil funktionierende Rückübernahmeabkommen mit den Herkunftsländern fehlen, wird die EU zu einem tödlichen Magneten'" - interview with Gerald Knaus - ("Gerald Knaus: 'The lack of functioning readmission agreements with countries of origin is turning the EU into a deadly magnet'") (26 October 2018)
• Refugees Deeply, John Dalhuisen Gerald Knaus, How Italy Can Combine Migration Control With Human Rights (13 March 2018)
• ESI paper: "Amsterdam in the Mediterranean" – How a Dutch-style asylum system can help resolve the Mediterranean refugee crisis (26 January 2018) – ​also available in Italian: "Amsterdam nel Mediterraneo"
• ESI proposals for the refugee crises in the Central Mediterranean and the Aegean: www.esiweb.org/refugees