UN Refugee Agency chief urges Europe to formulate collective response to migrant crisis

GENEVA 27th August 2015 (WAM) -- 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 Antonio Guterres has urged the European Union to speed up the formulation of an adequate collective response to this unprecedented crisis.

"Since the beginning of the year 293000 migrants and refugees tried to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea and 2440 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: 293000 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 bearing 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 where 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 assumes this responsibility" concluded Mr. Guterres.

The High Commissioner's press conference followed incidents on August 21st and 22nd during which thousands of migrants who had been prevented from entering the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia following the decision of 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 by sea prior to crossing over 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 few 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 emphasised the need to increase resources allocated to development cooperation as well as humanitarian assistance in particular to address the root causes.

"I remind you that the support programme for Syrian refugees is only funded up to 41 percent overall and up to 21 percent in Turkey which is also the country from where the most dramatic displacements have been recorded in the eastern Mediterranean" he said to journalists.

The High Commissioner also called for the acceleration of the implementation of 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."