"EU leaders must act over immigration" - Salil Shetty of Amnesty International
Europe must take action on immigration before it is too late. That is the message that Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International has been discussing with EU officials. He spoke to euronews reporter Efi Koutsokosta.
euronews: “Mr Shetty welcome to Euronews. Let’s go to the Middle East. Amnesty International said last week, and I quote, that “the world’s response to the Syria crisis so far has been woefully inadequate”. Why would you say that?
Salil Shetty: “Because we have 2.3 million refugees now, we have children who are dying of hunger, we have over nine million displaced in all six million internally displaced, 2.5 million or so refugees and we have known this problem and again Amnesty International repeatedly documented the crisis in Syria. If we had taken action earlier, we wouldn’t have been to that situation today. Even as we speak, we have and this is very relevant for our discussion in Europe, of the 2.5 million or so refugees, 97% of them have been resettled just in the neighbouring countries and these are relatively poor countries like Lebanon, Jordan. Europe at the end of all this rhetoric around Syria I think all it’s been able to do is to pledge to take about 14,000 or so of people and of that, 11.000 have been taken by Germany alone as pledges. So of 27 EU member countries, 28 EU member countries in all, 17 of them are taking zero.
euronews: “That’s why you said that the European leaders should be ashamed?”
Salil Shetty: “Absolutely, absolutely. I think it’s a matter of great shame. And you know, the net result if you don’t take systematic actions, as the UN special rapporteur for example has said that Europe can easily take 250,000 refugees a year for the next five years. Now, if you don’t take action today the fact that Syrian refugees are going to keep coming in Europe. That’s going to happen because Nicosia which is the furthest point in Europe is not that far from Damascus, a couple of hundred miles. So, they will find their way here.”
euronews “We are coming to the debate opened within the EU after the Lampedusa tragedy. Southern countries are complaining of having to shoulder an unfair burden as landing points for migrants seeking access to the EU. On the other hand, the Germans, Dutch, Danish and others say that “We are taking most of the asylum seekers coming to the EU in our countries”. So, what would you say, what should be done?”
Salil Shetty: “From an external global perspective, where I come from, in a sense the internal issues within Europe are important but if you look at it from a global perspective we look at Europe as a world leader on human rights, historically. But what we have seen in the recent past is actually quite the reverse. So, if you take the issue of how the migrants, asylum seekers are pushed back into the sea, thousands of people, as you know, have died at the last few years coming to the Mediterranean let alone by the land route. They are fleeing from prosecution and torture and coming to Europe. They get pushed back often losing their lives, children and women and if they do arrive in these countries including Greece, Italy and places like that, they are often put into detention centres and treated in a really bad way. The idea that Europe is taking its fair share, unfortunately is not true.”
euronews: “Do you think that Lampedusa was a wake up call for the EU?”
Salil Shetty: “We thought so. That is the unfortunate fact that this is a few months ago that happened and it really picked the conscience of European people and European leaders but if you look at what has actually happened in practice instead, apart from having meetings and rhetorical statements, not much has changed in practice. That’s one reason that I’m here.”
euronews: “The EU after Lampedusa tragedy, has launched a European Surveillance border control, a system which has been strongly criticised by the Human Rights Organizations. Don’t you think that a better border surveillance could eventually help rescue lives from the sea?”
Salil Shetty: “Absolutely, I think if there are better search and rescue systems in place, if there are better ways of disembarking people of saving their lives and once they come ashore a better shared responsibility then all of this will help. But it’s not a question of surveillance, it’s a question of how you protect the lives of people. The life of a person in Syria or the Middle East is of equal value as a life of a European. We can’t deny that. Nobody is expecting Europe to open its borders indiscriminately. It can be done in a systematic way. There are international procedures of how asylum seekers have to be dealt with case by case. But the reality is that many of the European countries simply put them in detention centres. “
euronews: “Let’s focus on the situation the Europe is in. The anti-immigrant sentiments are rising across Europe and along with that there are many extreme right parties which are exploiting and really investi
euronews: “Mr Shetty welcome to Euronews. Let’s go to the Middle East. Amnesty International said last week, and I quote, that “the world’s response to the Syria crisis so far has been woefully inadequate”. Why would you say that?
Salil Shetty: “Because we have 2.3 million refugees now, we have children who are dying of hunger, we have over nine million displaced in all six million internally displaced, 2.5 million or so refugees and we have known this problem and again Amnesty International repeatedly documented the crisis in Syria. If we had taken action earlier, we wouldn’t have been to that situation today. Even as we speak, we have and this is very relevant for our discussion in Europe, of the 2.5 million or so refugees, 97% of them have been resettled just in the neighbouring countries and these are relatively poor countries like Lebanon, Jordan. Europe at the end of all this rhetoric around Syria I think all it’s been able to do is to pledge to take about 14,000 or so of people and of that, 11.000 have been taken by Germany alone as pledges. So of 27 EU member countries, 28 EU member countries in all, 17 of them are taking zero.
euronews: “That’s why you said that the European leaders should be ashamed?”
Salil Shetty: “Absolutely, absolutely. I think it’s a matter of great shame. And you know, the net result if you don’t take systematic actions, as the UN special rapporteur for example has said that Europe can easily take 250,000 refugees a year for the next five years. Now, if you don’t take action today the fact that Syrian refugees are going to keep coming in Europe. That’s going to happen because Nicosia which is the furthest point in Europe is not that far from Damascus, a couple of hundred miles. So, they will find their way here.”
euronews “We are coming to the debate opened within the EU after the Lampedusa tragedy. Southern countries are complaining of having to shoulder an unfair burden as landing points for migrants seeking access to the EU. On the other hand, the Germans, Dutch, Danish and others say that “We are taking most of the asylum seekers coming to the EU in our countries”. So, what would you say, what should be done?”
Salil Shetty: “From an external global perspective, where I come from, in a sense the internal issues within Europe are important but if you look at it from a global perspective we look at Europe as a world leader on human rights, historically. But what we have seen in the recent past is actually quite the reverse. So, if you take the issue of how the migrants, asylum seekers are pushed back into the sea, thousands of people, as you know, have died at the last few years coming to the Mediterranean let alone by the land route. They are fleeing from prosecution and torture and coming to Europe. They get pushed back often losing their lives, children and women and if they do arrive in these countries including Greece, Italy and places like that, they are often put into detention centres and treated in a really bad way. The idea that Europe is taking its fair share, unfortunately is not true.”
euronews: “Do you think that Lampedusa was a wake up call for the EU?”
Salil Shetty: “We thought so. That is the unfortunate fact that this is a few months ago that happened and it really picked the conscience of European people and European leaders but if you look at what has actually happened in practice instead, apart from having meetings and rhetorical statements, not much has changed in practice. That’s one reason that I’m here.”
euronews: “The EU after Lampedusa tragedy, has launched a European Surveillance border control, a system which has been strongly criticised by the Human Rights Organizations. Don’t you think that a better border surveillance could eventually help rescue lives from the sea?”
Salil Shetty: “Absolutely, I think if there are better search and rescue systems in place, if there are better ways of disembarking people of saving their lives and once they come ashore a better shared responsibility then all of this will help. But it’s not a question of surveillance, it’s a question of how you protect the lives of people. The life of a person in Syria or the Middle East is of equal value as a life of a European. We can’t deny that. Nobody is expecting Europe to open its borders indiscriminately. It can be done in a systematic way. There are international procedures of how asylum seekers have to be dealt with case by case. But the reality is that many of the European countries simply put them in detention centres. “
euronews: “Let’s focus on the situation the Europe is in. The anti-immigrant sentiments are rising across Europe and along with that there are many extreme right parties which are exploiting and really investi