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EESC's new report seeks to offer EU advice on migration crisis

Xinhua, March 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

As part of its reflections on the European Union (EU) migration strategy, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) published a report on Wednesday, in which it presents suggestions for the EU to solve the migration crisis.

The report is based on fact-finding country visits and meetings with more than 180 stakeholders, mainly from civil society organizations actively working with refugees and migrants, said EESC.

In order to identify the problems and needs and share the best practices of various actors in the current refugee crisis, EESC delegations visited 11 EU member states, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden in December 2015 and January 2016.

According the report, EESC proposed several ways for the EU to cope with the current migration crisis, including reducing the number of irregular arrivals of migrants, receiving and assisting refugees in a humane way, providing better support for civil society organizations, changing the narrative and promoting public support for welcoming refugees, as well as ensuring the integration of refugees.

"We need to do more - smugglers, robbers, corruption and violence, severe weather conditions, closed borders, poor reception conditions and increasingly hostile citizens are just some of the difficulties encountered by the men, women and children seeking refuge in Europe," said Goncalo Lobo Xavier, EESC's Vice-President for Communication.

"Following the fact-finding missions, the EESC is now better prepared to contribute to the resolution of the refugee crisis and to policies for the integration of refugees," added Xavier. Endit