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EU Must Choose to Help Refugees Instead of Tightening Border Controls – PACE

© AP Photo / Petr David JosekSyrian refugees wait to be escorted to a train after they crossed the Hungarian border from Croatia.
Syrian refugees wait to be escorted to a train after they crossed the Hungarian border from Croatia. - Sputnik International
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European Union nations must focus on their obligation to help refugees fleeing extremist violence in the Middle East, rather than tightening EU border controls, a Danish lawmaker said Tuesday at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) migration debates.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Several EU states imposed new strict controls on internal borders and sealed external frontiers to stop the a surging influx of migrants from Syria. The UN estimates that 4 million Syrians have fled their homeland to escape war and atrocities committed by the violent Islamic State extremist group.

"People do not stop running away from mass rape and beheading by Daesh [ISIL]… Away from a living hell. Let's stop these cynical policies, let's stop these naive policies, let's honor our obligation to help people who need protection, let's make legal ways to enter Europe instead of pushing refugees in the hands of smugglers. Let's distribute the responsibilities among us in the name of solidarity," Nikolaj Villumsen said.

The lawmaker observed that those gathering at European borders were not enemies, but refugees who needed help, while European budgets were providing increased funding for border security.

"This year alone, more than 2,500 people have lost their lives as they have drowned in the try to come to Europe. They are victims of a cynical policy that has prevailed in the European Union and in many European countries. This is a cynical policy aimed at scaring away refugees from going to Europe."

The EU border protection agency Frontex claims over 500,000 migrants crossed European Union external borders in the first eight months of 2015.

© AFP 2023 / Ricardo Garcia VilanovaA member of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders - MSF) checks the temperature of a refugee onboard the Dignity 1 search and rescue vessel after they were rescued along with other migrants from their rubber boat by members of MSF in the Meditterranean sea off the coast of Libya on September 29, 2015
A member of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders - MSF) checks the temperature of a refugee onboard the Dignity 1 search and rescue vessel after they were rescued along with other migrants from their rubber boat by members of MSF in the Meditterranean sea off the coast of Libya on September 29, 2015 - Sputnik International
A member of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders - MSF) checks the temperature of a refugee onboard the Dignity 1 search and rescue vessel after they were rescued along with other migrants from their rubber boat by members of MSF in the Meditterranean sea off the coast of Libya on September 29, 2015
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