EU’s real solidarity resolves refugee crisis: UN

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has urged European governments to show more solidarity toward the refugees amid the crisis that has gripped the continent.

In a Tuesday interview with Portuguese broadcaster RTP, the UN official criticized some EU countries for acting unilaterally in the face of the major refugee exodus, saying the crisis needs an integrated response.

“There is no way to resolve a crisis of this dimension if each country acts alone and based solely on its own interests,” Guterres said, adding, “Hundreds of thousands of refugees have arrived in Europe since the beginning of the year ... But the European Union counts 500 million inhabitants. If there was a real policy of solidarity, the problem would be easily handled.”

The remarks came hours before an emergency meeting in Brussels, where EU interior ministers are expected to convene to discuss how to relocate 120,000 refugees across the EU from frontline states, namely Greece, Italy and Hungary. Some governments have expressed dissatisfaction about controversial binding quotas, the main reason behind the failure of similar talks last week.

EU ministers have so far agreed to a relocation of some 40,000 refugees from Greece and Italy, while everyone is waiting to see how leaders of the 28-nation bloc will handle the historic crisis in their full summit on Wednesday.

'Dignity of refugees must be respected'

Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, said the EU needs a proper registration mechanism, so that it can “distinguish the refugees from those who are not.” He said those whose refugee applications may be rejected through this mechanism could be “sent back to their countries of origin in a way that respects their dignity.”

Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said Tuesday that the EU may need more than 200,000 relocation areas by the end of 2016, stressing the urgent need of the EU states to agree on an integrated mechanism.

“That is becoming increasingly chaotic and unpredictable,” Fleming said, adding, “We believe this may be the last opportunity for a coherent European response to manage a crisis that is increasing suffering and exploitation of refugees and migrants and it is also increasing the tension between countries.”

The UN refugee agency said in a Tuesday statement that a total of 477,906 people had made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean since the start of the current year, most of them from conflict zones such as Syria and Afghanistan. It said a daily average of 6,000 people is arriving on the European shores.

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