PACE president condemns Europe for 'slamming its doors on refugees'

In a statement released here on Friday, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Anne Brasseur criticized the attitude taken by Europe regarding the migrant crisis, accusing it of "slamming its doors on refugees" and ignoring its international obligations.

"Faced with an unprecedented displacement challenge, one would expect Europe to show a surge of solidarity," Brasseur declared just three days before the end of her second one-year term as PACE president.

"Slamming doors on men, women and children in need of protection? Is this really what Europe is about?" denounced Brasseur, known for speaking bluntly, despite the Council of Europe (CoE) being known for its guarded tone. Faced with the gravity of the refugee crisis which, once again, splintered the European Parliament during this week's plenary session, the PACE President refused to hold her tongue.

"Europe's lack of a common response is not only a great shame; it flouts international law. Providing shelter and support to those who are escaping war is not only our moral duty, it is our legal obligation," she warned.

"Instead of joint and shared efforts, we see the domino effect of rejection rolling along Europe's borders," the PACE president observed in a moment when French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had only just claimed that Europe could not accept all refugees fleeing wars in Syria or Iraq. "Otherwise our societies will be totally destabilized," the French Prime Minister told the BBC earlier on Friday.

"If Europe is not capable of protecting its own borders, it's the very idea of Europe that will be questioned," he insisted.

Prime Minister Valls's declarations have fanned the flames in a European Union (EU) in complete disarray, incapable of handling the flux of over a million refugees who arrived on the continent in 2015. The events of New Year's Eve in the German city of Cologne, where groups of migrants allegedly engaged in mass sexual assaults, has changed a large segment of public opinion and paved the way for partisans in favor of closing down borders.

"Border controls can now be found where only a year ago, they would have been unimaginable: between Sweden and Denmark, for the first time since the 1950s; then, between Denmark and Germany," lamented the PACE president. Hungary's construction of a border wall last summer led to other barriers being built in several other EU nations in order to protect their internal frontiers.

"This will go down in the history books as Europe's great failure," judged Brasseur who, in her statement, reminded Europeans with solemnity: "During and after the Second World War, many Europeans were themselves on the run in search of refuge. It is not so long ago. How would we have felt if -- forced to abandon everything we have to flee war and terror -- we had met only closed doors?"

"Let us live up to our own values, rise above our national self-interest, and stand together to offer a helping hand to our neighbors who come to us in distress," pleaded Brasseur.

The refugee crisis and the plight of migrants in Europe will be at the heart of the winter session of PACE which will take place between Jan 25 and 29.

Source: XINHUA