UNHCR: Greece and E.U. Must Move Toward ‘Sustainable Refugee Response’
The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called on Greek authorities and the E.U. to implement eight policy recommendations for a sustainable, long-term refugee response in Greece.
“The situation in Greece can be managed. It requires moving from the current emergency response to a sustainable system, where asylum seekers and refugees access the adequate care, support and solution they need,” Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a press release.
The eight policy recommendations include: “[ensuring] capacity to register and process asylum claims, address serious gaps on the islands immediately, a plan for a sustainable and adequate reception system on the mainland, adequate care for children, prevention and response to Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), coordination and [establishing] clear responsibilities, [increasing] pace and number of people relocated and reunited with family members in other countries, and self-reliance and integration.”
With only 10,000 refugees being relocated from Greece to other E.U. member states as of March 20 last year, Grandi said that “strengthened cooperation” and “responsibility sharing” among E.U. countries in the only way forward.
1,200 Migrants Rescued Off Libyan Coast
Around 1,200 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coast en route to Italy last weekend, Reuters reported.
Over 400 people were found in an overcrowded wooden boat, while the others were rescued from rubber dinghies. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff reported the subsequent death of a woman that they had discovered in an unconscious state on one of the boats.
The rescue brings the total number of migrants and asylum seekers crossing the central Mediterranean this year to 22,000, with 520 deaths recorded in 2017 so far.
Hungary Passes New Law of Systematic Detention
Hungary’s newest “anti-migration” law, with mandatory detention of all asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors above the age of 14, will go into effect today, Agence France-Presse reported. The detention camps where the asylum seekers will be held until their applications are processed are located on the southern border with Serbia.
Asylum seekers will be held in two camps, in so-called “transit zones,” made up of 324 converted metal shipping containers installed along the 110-mile (175km) fence that Hungary built in 2015. Those rejected will be denied the right to appeal the decision.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, rejected accusations that refugees are being “locked up” since they are free to leave the camps and return to Serbian territory, according to his claims.
Hungary’s Interior Ministry said the reason for the “legal border closure” is to “prevent migrants with an unclear status from moving freely within the European Union.”
U.N. Human Rights Council Advisory Jean Ziegler, speaking with German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, condemned the law and asked the European Commission to place sanctions on countries such as Hungary that violate the rights of asylum seekers.