News / EU

UN warns refugees should not become secondary victims of tragic events

Tuesday, 17 November 2015 1:22 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 November 2015 1:46 PM ]

Refugees walk off an overcrowded raft at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos on November 16, 2015. (Reuters photo)

The United Nations has called on European countries not to go back on their pledge to host asylum seekers in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in the French capital, Paris.

Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency, expressed concern on Tuesday about the reactions from some EU states signaling their intentions to move away from their commitments to receive refugees.

“Refugees should not be turned into scapegoats and must not become the secondary victims of these most tragic events,” Fleming said.

The comments came after some EU states said they would take a hard line on the refugee crisis, following the terror attacks in Paris on November 13, where more than 130 people were killed and some 350 were injured.

France, Poland and Hungary have called on EU officials to stem the record influx of asylum seekers.

Fleming said moves such as the one in Hungary, where the parliament has endorsed attempts by the government to ignore a refugee relocation plan by the EU, are “disturbing.”

In similar remarks on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Zeid al-Hussein blasted the EU officials for launching a new narrative against the refugees.

“One cannot conceive of a European continent which is going to thrive economically if borders are ... fenced off with walls and barbed wire and machine gun nests and observation towers,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Slovenian special police forces stand barbed wire set to block the flow of refugees near the Harmica-Rigonce crossing, November 12, 2015. (AFP photo)

“They (refugees) all have their human rights. They all should not be abused,” Zeid said.

The anti-refugee rhetoric gained a new momentum after initial investigations into the Paris attacks pointed to the discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one of the attackers. Prosecutors in France said the fingerprints of the attacker matched those recorded in October in Greece, a frontline country where many refugees start their journey into Europe.

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