UN chief concerns over border restrictions facing refugees along Balkan land route

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed great concern over the increasing number of border restrictions along the Balkan land route and calls on all countries to keep their borders open to refugees.

The Secretary-General is following with great concern the increasing number of border restrictions along the Balkan land route, including in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, said a statement of Ban's spokesman.

Such border restrictions are not in line with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol because individual determination of refugee status and assessment of individual protection needs are not made possible, it said.

Ban noted that the number of asylum seekers entering Greece from Turkey continues unabated, and that the border closures are creating a difficult situation in Greece. Meanwhile, Turkey is already hosting in excess of 2.6 million refugees and asylum seekers.

On the other hand, Ban is "fully aware of the pressures felt by many European countries."

However, he called on all countries to "keep their borders open, and to act in a spirit of responsibility sharing and solidarity, including through expanding legal pathways to access asylum."

Recalling that the vast majority of refugees are hosted by developing countries, Ban reiterated that "there is a real need for responsibility sharing at the global level."

The responsibility sharing at the global level will be one of the key issues in the General Assembly's Summit on large movements of refugees and migrants, to be held on Sept. 19 in New York. Enditem