The conference was organised in cooperation with the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU and brought together around 300 participants and over 500 online viewers from across the EU. Representatives from EU institutions and bodies, national governments, international organisations, national human rights institutions and equality bodies, labour inspectorates, social partners and civil society organisations gathered in Warsaw to discuss how to improve access to fundamental rights for irregular migrants living in the European Union. Plenary sessions and interactive discussions in the working groups and the Marketplace of Ideas focused on fundamental rights in migration management, labour exploitation, access to basic healthcare and education for children, detention of irregular migrants, protracted irregularity and many more.
FRA Director, Morten Kjaerum emphasised the need to "find solutions to ensuring that migration policy is built on fundamental rights standards". He added that "Whatever solutions we adopt, what is clear is that our societies cannot continue to pick the fruit of irregular migration with one hand, while using the other hand to close the door to basic rights."
Read more about the conference.