"It’s vital and they spoke of the program we have implemented concerning Syrian refugees studying in universities and technical schools; we're not only [offering] basic [education] but also tertiary [education] so that we can prepare those generations for future in their own countries. So we are doing everything needed to make integration fully successful for the refugees," the president added.
"Portugal is really playing an important role in receiving refugees from Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Italy, thousands of refugees coming from Near East, Middle East and Northern Africa," De Sousa noted. "We think it is a very important challenge for humanity; that is why the summits of yesterday and the day before yesterday are very important for the future of the UN acting on such complex but vital field."
Europe has suffered a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing crisis-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015, in contrast to some 283,000 in 2014. In order to solve the problem, the European Union adopted quotas system last September, which suggests relocation of 160,000 asylum seekers across the bloc.