Sunday, August 30, 2009
On Wednesday, the European Commission will get the ball rolling with a recommendation for a 'joint EU resettlement programme' under which nations would take in more refugees from poor and war-hit third countries.
This scheme, though voluntary, is aimed at cutting the numbers seeking to reach Europe's shores aboard rickety boats or via unscrupulous people traffickers.
The EU's executive arm is also trying to ease the pressure on countries such as Malta, Italy and Spain which are in the frontline of the influx and feel that other member states are not sharing enough of the burden.
Then in October, the commission will publish proposals for harmonising asylum and family reunion criteria through Europe.
While the European Union is keen to do its best to help refugee-laden countries plus the immigrants themselves, there is also a feeling that at the moment the bloc has an image problem.
'The current relatively low level of involvement of the EU in the resettlement of refugees impacts negatively on the ambition of the EU to play a prominent role in global humanitarian affairs and hence on the influence of the EU in international fora,' the commission said in the resettlement proposals.
According to UNHCR figures, last year EU nations resettled 6.7 per cent of the 65,596 refugees who found new homes worldwide.
Source: AFP, August 30, 2009
'Some countries can say 'you are not doing sufficiently as a bloc' and the figures certainly suggest that perhaps more can be done,' admitted commission spokesman Dennis Abbott.
A senior Vatican official recently deplored indifference to migrants after 73 Eritreans were reported to have died from hunger and thirst trying to reach Europe