“The greatest challenge for this year is to have a really common European asylum system and a just sharing of a responsibility system in the EU member-states, UN Assistant High Commissioner for Protection and Director of the Division of International Protection; Volker Turk stated in an interview to ANA-MPA adding however that “we need to work hard in order to reach that point.”
Turk visited the Greece-FYROM buffer zone at Idomeni, Athens and Lesvos where he had the opportunity to meet with refugees and migrants and discuss with members of the Greek government.
Idomeni was Turk’s first stop on the day that FYROM authorities allowed entrance only to refugees with Austria and Germany as the final destination. “It is a country’s sovereign right to control its borders, but at the same time when we deal with people who need protection, we must safeguard that they will have access to this protection,” said Turk.
“In Europe there is a huge issue because in one hand we have the countries with EU’s external borders (Italy and Greece) and in the other hand we have some countries as Germany, Austria and Sweden that have been widely affected by the refugee issue. But what we really need is a collective response from the European Union in order for a fair share of responsibilities to exist and we are not at that point yet,” said Turk.
The UN Assistant High Commissioner said he is impressed by the Greek Coast Guard’s efforts to save lives. “It is obvious that saving lives is the top priority of the government and the officers are doing a very good job as well as the police, the local authorities and the asylum service staff, but this does not mean that problems do not exist taking into account the huge number of refugees that arrive to the Greek islands.”
Turk left Greece on Sunday and he visits Turkey where he will meet with members of the Turkish government. Before Greece the UN Commissioner had visited FYROM.
(source: ana-mpa)
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