UN refugee agency chief urges Europe to formulate collective response to migrant crisis

With the number of migrants fleeing to Europe the violence in their countries of origin continuing to increase, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, urged the European Union to speed up the formulation of an adequate collective response to this unprecedented crisis. “Since the beginning of the year, 293,000 migrants and refugees tried to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea and 2,440 of them died during the crossing,” said Mr. Guterres during a press conference in Geneva.

Joined by the French Minister of Internal Affairs, Bernard Cazeneuve, who was on a visit to the Swiss city, Mr. Guterres called on European countries not to deal individually with the migration crisis.

“Let’s be frank: 293,000 is a huge number for countries like the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or Serbia, or even Hungary or Greece; if we also think of the capacity of Germany, which today has most Syrian refugees,” he acknowledged, before adding that the same figure, with in mind the size of the whole European continent and its 508 million inhabitants, is in fact relatively low.

It is even lower, considering the efforts provided by neighbouring countries of Syria, like Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon in particular, a country whose a third of the population is now made up of Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

“It is clear that Europe has the capacities and the size needed to meet the challenges, assuming that it shows unity and jointly assume this responsibility,” concluded Mr. Guterres.

The High Commissioner’s press conference followed incidents on August 21 and 22, during which thousands of migrants prevented to enter the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia following the decision of the authorities to close the country’s border with Greece had attempted to force the passage.

The migrants, coming mostly from Syria, had initially reached Greece from Turkey at sea, prior to crossing the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to Serbia and Western Europe.

“Taking into account all the human tragedies that these people have suffered, it only makes sense that we must act; we must act quickly; and must act effectively,” advocated the High Commissioner, citing the chaos of the past days at the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Envisioning a more inclusive and responsible migration policy at the European level, Mr. Guterres emphasized the need to increase resources allocated to development cooperation, as well as humanitarian assistance, in particular to address root causes.

“I remind you that the support program to Syrian refugees is only funded only up to 41 per cent overall and up to 21 per cent in Turkey, which is also the country where from the most dramatic displacements have been recorded in eastern Mediterranean,” he said to journalists.

The High Commissioner also called to accelerate implementation of the decisions taken by the European Council to improve reception and registration of refugees, but also relocation and resettlement.

The latter, he observed, “today would likely require much higher figures than those that have been proposed so far.”

Refugee crossings into Europe top 300,000 – UN refugee agency

The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe this year has exceeded 300,000, and some 2,500 have died or gone missing, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has announced.

The figures mark a sharp increase from the roughly 219,000 people who made the same crossing during the whole of last year.

Nearly 200,000 people crossing the Mediterranean into Europe this year have landed in Greece, while about 110,000 have landed in Italy, according to UNHCR.

The agency said an estimated 2,500 refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe this year have died or gone missing; most are fleeing violence and conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The death toll does not include those attempting to make the crossing on two packed boats that capsized on Thursday near Libya. An estimated 200 people are still missing and feared dead.

On Wednesday, rescuers coming to the aid of another boat off the Libyan coast and found 51 dead from suffocation in the hold.

UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming described the incidents as “shocking and indicative” of the ruthless nature of the smuggling trade.

” We interviewed some of the survivors yesterday and they told us the smugglers were charging people money for allowing them to come out of the hold in order to breathe. One survivor, Abdel, 25, from Sudan told our colleagues, we didn’t want to go down there but they beat us with sticks to force us. We had no air so we were trying to get back up through the hatch and to breathe through the cracks in the ceiling. But the other passengers were scared the boat would capsize so they pushed us back down and beat us too.”

UNHCR said that while joint European search and rescue operations have saved tens of thousands of lives this year, the Mediterranean Sea continues to be the deadliest route for refugees and migrants.

Secretary-General “horrified and heartbroken” over latest refugee deaths

he UN Secretary-General has said he is “horrified and heartbroken” over the latest deaths in Austria and at sea of refugees desperate to reach Europe’s shores.

Ban Ki-moon said such countless human tragedies require a collective response from the international community.

Much more must be done to ensure the journey across international waters and borders of people fleeing conflict is safe and legal, according to the UN Secretary-General.

Thousands of refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean and the Andaman seas this year have died or gone missing.

The grim discovery Thursday of up to 70 people who suffocated to death inside a truck abandoned at the Austria-Hungary border has left Ban Ki-moon “horrified and heartbroken”.

“This is a human tragedy that requires a determined collective political response.  It is a crisis of solidarity, not a crisis of numbers.  Let us do all we can to provide people in the most desperate circumstances with a measure of safety and a sense of hope.”

Mr Ban said the first priority must be saving lives and providing humanitarian aid.

He appealed to all governments to act with humanity, compassion and in accordance with their international obligations.

Source: UN News