Rights official calls for refugees` direct relocation to EU

Published November 29, 2015 · Updated September 24, 2022

A woman and her children look on as migrants and refugees wait to cross the Greece-Macedonia border in the rain on Friday.

AP, Budapest :A top European human rights official called Friday for refugees to be resettled in Europe directly from camps near conflicts zones to prevent them from enduring long and dangerous journeys that are unnecessary anyway.Nils Muiznieks, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, said that since 99 percent of Syrian refugees and about two-thirds of those from Afghanistan are granted international protects in Europe anyway, it was a “chaotic and inefficient policy” to make them take long journeys by land and sea while relying on human traffickers.”Why make them go through this suffering? Why not have resettlement directly from in and around the areas of conflict?” Muiznieks said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It would be a much more humane solution.”Asylum seekers from the Middle East have been making long treks into Europe through Greece and the Balkans, facing dangerous sea journeys and blocked borders as more and more countries in the region put up barriers.Macedonia became the latest country o try to block migrants at its border, causing hundreds to be stranded. On Thursday, hundreds of migrants clashed with Macedonian riot police at as they tried to force their way through the cordon.The International Organization for Migration said Friday that after the number of people crossing into Europe from Turkey topped 5,000 on Wednesday after dropping to just 155 on Sunday.Muizinieks urged more countries to follow the policies of Germany and Britain, which have already carried out resettlements or have pledged to do so.Meanwhile, the Macedonian army began erecting a metal fence on Saturday on the country’s southern border with Greece at the point where migrants cross en route to western Europe, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.Soldiers began driving long metal poles into the ground and rolling out wire, building a barrier similar to that erected by Hungary on its southern border with Serbia and Croatia to keep out the wave of migrants.