PM Tsipras: Refugee crisis a global challenge
The refugee crisis we are facing today is a global challenge. We will either manage to address it together and according to the international law, or we will fail," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in his speech to the Summit of Leaders on the refugee issue chaired by US President Barack Obama, whom Tsipras thanked for the initiative.
Tsipras also thanked Yusra Mardini - the Syrian refugee that was among the refugees that had arrived in Greece and participated in the Olympics as a swimmer - for what she said, and for her courage.
"One of the parts of the world that is mostly tested today is Greece. A country that has dealt with 1.2 million refugees and migrants in less than half a year. Where approximately 60,000 refugees and migrants remain trapped, since our northern borders closed because of other countries' unilateral actions. If we were talking, for example, for Great Britain, this figure would correspond to a population of 520,000 refugees and migrants," the Greek prime minister said.
Moreover, Tsipras said that the Greek Asylum Service, which did not even exist three years ago, manages the fourth largest number of asylum applications in Europe while the Greek authorities, together with European and Turkish ones, are trying to implement "the very difficult but necessary EU-Turkey Agreement, leading to a drastic reduction of flows and, most importantly, deaths in the Aegean Sea - replacing the unlawful, dangerous path of the Aegean with a legal route to Europe."
"If this effort that is taking place in Greece - with the support of several EU countries - fails, the only winners in Europe will be the most xenophobic and nationalist voices. Forces that believe that the application of international law is a luxury and the sharing of responsibility is something unacceptable", he said and stressed the need for a strong international initiative that will set a new global framework for refugee management and weaken the xenophobic anti-migrant agenda.
"This framework must be strengthened: the support to countries hosting refugees, the return of people who are not entitled to international protection as well as the resettlement and relocation of those who need it, the initiatives to address the root causes of migration, including initiatives for peace in Syria, and police cooperation against human trafficking networks. Such a global framework is today more necessary than ever. And Greece is well aware of that," he concluded.
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