EU Must Jointly Approach Root Causes of Migration Crisis

STRASBOURG (Sputnik) — The European Union must give a joint response to the core causes of the migration crisis and not leave it up to separate countries, President of the Cyprian House of Representative Demetris Syllouris told Sputnik on Thursday.

“We have to solve the initial reasons making [the refugees] to live their homeland and face the migration problem as one, not leaving this problem individually to each country," Syllouris said.

He explained that dire economic situation, the war and violence forced people to leave their homes and these root causes must be addressed by the bloc jointly. The president stressed that the human traffickers' threat must be also dealt with.

“We also have to find solution to the smugglers problem. Today this industry of 5 billion euros [$5.62 billion] and next year it will be an industry of 10 billion euros. So we have to find solutions for the smugglers problem, how we can find smugglers in each individual country and how to fight them in total,” Syllouris added.

Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn countries of origin in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. The majority of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using southern EU nations as transit points.

According to the Frontex, about 118,000 people arrived in Europe via the Central Mediterranean route in the first eight months of 2016.