The United Nations has been forced to consider establishing refugee holding centres in north Africa and the Middle East due to the spiralling numbers of migrants attempting perilous journeys across the Mediterranean in a desperate effort to reach Europe.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has said for the first time that the large-scale processing of migrants and refugees outside Europe, in countries such as Egypt, Libya or Sudan, may be necessary as frontline authorities claim they have been abandoned by Brussels in the face of a “colossal humanitarian catastrophe”.
Hundreds of thousands of people are preparing to make treacherous crossings on unseaworthy vessels from the north African coast toGreece and Italy as this summer’s “boat season” gets under way, say officials. Figures for the first few months of this year already show a dramatic increase on previous years.
UNHCR’s European director, Vincent Cochetel, told the Guardian: “We would not be totally against external processing if certain safeguards were in place: the right to appeal, fair process, the right to remain while appeals take place.”
The EU had not found effective mechanisms to prevent migrants dying at sea, he said. Instead of focusing on ever tougher border controls, the EU needed to establish safe routes.
Campaigners for refugee rights have hitherto rejected the idea of large processing camps outside Europe, fearing refugees would be at the mercy of states with poor records on human rights and justice.
“There’s no way that could work,” said Judith Sutherland of Human Rights Watch (HRW). “In theory, HRW doesn’t have a problem with creating channels of access to asylum in the EU from outside [but] you can’t imagine [the right] conditions being met in Libya today, or indeed Egypt or Morocco.”
Greece, which currently holds the EU presidency, is also pressing for the establishment of holding centres in north Africa and the Middle East in order to process refugees and migrants before they reach European soil. In addition, the Greek government is calling for an international seaborne taskforce to patrol the Mediterranean in an attempt to stem the flow of migrants. Greece will table the proposals at an EU summit next month, according to senior government officials in Athens.
“The shaping of a comprehensive immigration policy is one of the main priorities of [the Greek presidency], as well as the Italian presidency, which follows ours,” Greece’s deputy prime minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said, Guardian informs.
