UN refugee chief urges EU to put safety first in its Mediterranean action
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - As European Union (EU) interior ministers hold an extraordinary session of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has said it is a chance for the EU to put safety and solidarity at the heart of its action in the Mediterranean and along all other migratory routes.
With almost 2,000 people having already died or gone missing so far this year alone, urgent action is needed, he said in a statement on Thursday.
"While states point fingers and trade blame, lives are lost," he said. "What is needed is more state-led and better coordinated search and rescue efforts, predictable disembarkation in places of safety, and expedited access to screening and asylum procedures to identify those who may need international protection, and return – in safety and with dignity – those who do not.
Mr. Grandi said it is in this spirit that welcomes the proposed EU Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean—which will serve as a basis for Friday's extraordinary session of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting.
He pointed out that it ensures solidarity among states and a commitment to uphold long standing legal and moral obligations for rescue at sea and safe and predictable disembarkation.
Mr. Grandi added that the urgency to address the desperate situation in the Mediterranean does not replace the need for wider reforms for a better managed and fair common asylum system as proposed in the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. "But people cannot afford to wait," he stressed.
Mr Grandi said with so many lives at stake, UNHCR appreciates the vital importance of rescue at sea by all actors, including NGO rescue vessels, adding that UNHCR will continue to support states in finding and implementing immediate and humane solutions in line with international law to prevent further needless deaths at sea.
-0- PANA MA 25Nov2022
