The United Nations Representative for International Migration, Peter Sutherland, has warned that the common humanity of Europeans could be sacrificed by a populist anti-immigrant mood fuelled by misinformation or a lack of information.
Mr Sutherland said yesterday the disgraceful situation in the refugee camp in Calais reflected European disarray on migration and refugees.
He said while the EU had made sensible proposals, a number of states, mainly in central and eastern Europe, had refused to subscribe and participate.
“If Germany can handle 800,000 to one million refugees this year, plus 500,000 a year for the following five years, why can’t France (with help from the UK) not solve the problem of 3,000 people in Calais?
“For that matter why cannot every EU country (including the UK) share fairly in the relocation of migrants from Greece and Italy in particular, and also the resettlement of refugees from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon?”
Mr Sutherland, a former EU commissioner, was speaking at a conference on boat migrants held in UCD yesterday.
He told the conference he had visited the Calais camp two weeks ago on a day of serious disturbances.
Truly shocking
“The conditions in which the migrants were living were truly shocking. Doctors there told me of clear evidence of TB and scabies. This is a disgrace. It is also a clear example of the broader inadequacies in Europe’s practical expression of its much vaunted values.”
Mr Sutherland said notwithstanding an estimated 60 per cent of the 3,000 in the camp probably being eligible for refugee status, there was a reluctance by governments to follow through, on the basis the host county would then have to grant asylum.
He said the people there remained determined “by hook or by crook” to make it to the UK.
“The site itself is a living reproach to European society – a desperate place populated by desperate people. There, the one shaft of light is to be found in the stream – even a tide – of volunteer helpers. These often come from micro NGOs from France, the UK and some from Ireland,” he said.
Mr Sutherland traced the background of the people in the camp, the majority of whom have fled from war-torn countries.
“The compulsion to leave was obviously so powerful that the migrants were prepared to spend their last pennies and risk their lives in rickety boats to escape.”
Over 2,700 have drowned this year. Others have been dying for years in the Mediterranean, but it took one heart-rending photograph to bring a temporary constructive reaction.”
Catastrophe
He suggested that if people were assessed before they left north Africa, then the catastrophes that have occurred would reduce greatly in number.
He said the continuing state of affairs threatened the internal cohesion of the EU and the maintenance of European values. He argued for a common EU policy for migrants and refugees, which he said was “indispensable” for the improvement of the current situation.
“This policy must recognise that proximity does not create responsibility for migrants or refugees. Why should Lebanon have over one-quarter of its population made up of Syrian refugees? Or why should Turkey have 1.7 million? For that matter, why should Italy and Greece have such disproportionate numbers just because they are on the Mediterranean?
“Why did the UK agree to take less than 5,000 a year for the next few years from outside the EU for resettlement, but none from Greece or Italy for relocation from inside? Why is there no real sharing of responsibility for refugees?”
He said that harmonisation and the oversight of refugee camps had to be centrally co-ordinated.
“We must surely develop policies that effectively discourage illegal migrants, but open opportunities for legal migration.
“There has to be a balance in our policies. And those policies have to be developed in dialogue with the countries of origin and transit,” he said.
