Luxembourg, 09/07/2015(Agence Europe) - On Thursday 9 July in Luxembourg, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, from Portugal, made an appeal to member states. In a backdrop to an informal Ministers for Home Affairs meeting, he called on member states to put in place genuine solidarity mechanisms to respond to the migratory crisis and make commitments to helping Italy and Greece, where thousands of migrants have arrived since the beginning of the year.
The situation in Greece, especially on the island of Lesbos, is of particular concern to the UN official. During a press conference he explained that “since the beginning of the year, more than 70,000 people have arrived, 85% come from conflict countries and 65% are Syrians”. The Eastern Mediterranean route, which goes through Greece and towards countries such as Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), is used by more refugees than that in the central Mediterranean and which involves Italy.
Although the migrants arriving in Italy are mainly so-called “economic” migrants and are supposed to be sent back to their countries of origin, the migratory crisis in Greece is “a genuine refugee crisis, with real needs of international protection”, emphasised the High Commissioner. The latter pointed out that the reception conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in the country are still precarious and the asylum system remains “embryonic”. The UN official added “we need a solid European response” to this situation.
The High Commissioner welcomed the efforts made by the European Commission and his proposals to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece to other member states. This subject was on the table of the ministers in Luxembourg (see other article) as well as the resettlement project for 20,000 refugees currently cared for in third countries. The High Commissioner regretted, however, that the relocation mechanism was still only voluntary and that “we need a compulsory system in the future”.
4 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries
The High Commissioner was in Luxembourg to discuss the resettlement mechanism mainly aimed at Syrian refugees currently in care in countries neighbouring Syria. On 9 July, the UN High Commission for Refugees (HCR) also presented new statistics on Syrian refugees. More than 4 million of them are now in neighbouring countries. Just over 1.8 million of them are in Turkey, 1,172,000 are in Lebanon and 629,000 are in Jordan. Syrians are also seeking refuge in Iraq, Egypt and countries in North Africa.
Speaking in Luxembourg, the High Commissioner highlighted the lack of UN money to tackle this emergency and highlighted the fact that Turkey had already provided $6 billion from its own budget in direct assistance to Syrian refugees, which is almost as much as the other international donors.
The UN official also called on member states to redouble their solidarity to countries neighbouring Syria and the refugees who have been displaced. In this connection he underlined the response provided by Germany, which, according to Eurostat, took in more than 41,000 asylum seekers in 2014. Guterres said that “If all member states acted in the same way, the situation would be much easier to manage” and called on member states to develop legal ways of migrating, such as humanitarian visas. (Solenn Paulic)