The collapse of the Greek asylum system and the pressure on the borders of Southern Europe from insurgencies in North Africa shows that the EU is not geared to manage migration flows into Europe. Refugee rights must not be disregarded as a result.

More than 5000 people have arrived in Italy from Tunisia as a result of the regime's fall. In Libya, the instability could send refugees and migrants from Africa to European shores.

"It's very difficult to predict developments in North Africa, but Europe is forced to act. We can not accept a humanitarian crises in Europe, as we are seeing it in Greece, "says Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council Andreas Kamm.

Andreas Kamm is currently in Athens in his capacity of Chairman of the European umbrella organization for refugee NGOs, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).

"The situation in Greece illustrates that the southern European countries are under enormous pressure. There is simply no capacity to deal with so many asylum cases. We need to ensure a contingency to determine whether people have the right to protection so we do not end up violating the rights of refugees, "says Andreas Kamm.

In January the European Court of Human Rights stated that the Greek asylum-system was so inadequate that returns from other European countries was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

"Because of it’s geographic position, Greece received 80 to 90% of refugees and migrants coming to Europe. The situation remained unhandled for too long and the consequence became a violation of fundamental rights of asylum-seekers - it's not a mistake we must repeat the rest of southern Europe, "says Andreas Kamm.

Danish Refugee Council has recently had a delegation in Greece, where authorities and NGOs need help to take care of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants.

Photo: UNHCR

Related News:

 European Court of Human Rights: Stop transfers to Greece  - 21-01-11 17:27

Back to: News