The European Union’s attitude toward the Syrian refugee crisis is geared solely toward “protecting Fortress Europe” by keeping them out of the bloc, Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth said this week at the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos, Swizterland. He called on the EU to fully suspend the contentious Dublin regulation, which stipulates that refugees can only apply for asylum in their first country of arrival in the EU. The regulation also means that when found in other EU member states, such refugees are returned to that original EU member state. This policy, he underscored, puts the pressure on European countries lying at the bloc’s external borders, especially Malta, Greece, Italy, and Bulgaria. Some of the world’s biggest nongovernmental organisations took European countries and the European Union to task on Wednesday for what they called a “major failure” to help Syrian refugees. “The richest countries are shedding crocodile tears” when they lament the poor situation of Syrian refugees, Amnesty International head Salil Shetty said.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:06:13 +0000
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