UN refugee agency calls for stronger EU action in protecting refugees

In a paper presented to the European Union (EU) on Monday, UN refugee agency UNHCR provided a new proposal on how to better protect refugees and called for a far-reaching reform of Europe's global engagement with refugees.

In a media statement, UNHCR said it called on Europe to offer more strategic and targeted support to countries of origin, asylum and transit of refugees, to review its contingency preparations to respond to large refugee and migrant arrivals, and to put in place a "more efficient and better managed asylum system."

It also asked for greater investment by EU member states in the integration of refugees, including housing, employment and language training.

"Last year, Europe failed to implement a collective, managed response to the challenges posed by the arrival of over a million refugees and migrants," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

"This resulted in scenes of chaos at borders, leading to a breakdown in public trust in the capacity of governments to manage the situation and playing into the hands of those who wanted to turn refugees into scapegoats," he added.

The UN refugee chief stressed that it is important that EU member states show that Europe is capable of engaging effectively and in a principled manner with refugee movements, while at the same time continuing to welcome refugees in Europe.

The UNHCR paper sets out a vision for how this could be achieved both within the EU and globally.

Among its main proposals are targeted measures to address the reasons why refugees are fleeing and moving onwards, increased safe pathways for refugees to Europe, and a simplified asylum system that would identify, register and process arrivals swiftly and efficiently and would go a long way to restore public trust.

"This is now the moment for a new vision for Europe's engagement with the global refugee crisis," said Grandi, adding that history has demonstrated that Europe is stronger when it addresses its challenges together. Enditem