Anti-Migrant Fences in EU Undermine Bloc's Integration

GENEVA (Sputnik) — The fences and borders that are being constructed in Europe to prevent undocumented migrants from entering EU states undermine the integration and moral principles of the entire union, the UN chief's special representative for migration said Friday.

"Fences, borders are re-emerging in Europe. It challenges the whole integration of the EU [European Union] and it challenges the moral responsibility to provide asylum," Peter Sutherland told reporters.

Sutherland added that he decries the nationalist approach that some of the states have assumed amid the migrant influx.

He added that the political leadership of such states and the media bear responsibility for this nationalist approach.

Europe has been experiencing a major migrant crisis, as hundreds of thousands of people flee conflict-torn states in North Africa and the Middle East in an effort to find a better life in stable and prosperous European states. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.8 million illegal border crossings in 2015, in contrast to some 283,000 in 2014.

In response to the growing number of migrants reaching their territories, several EU states, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovenia, which are used primarily as a transit routes by refugees, have built fences on their borders.

A number of European states, including Austria and Germany, have also toughened their border checks, introducing special procedures on their borders, to curb the influx of refugees.