EU’s refugee relocation scheme ‘not enough’

The backing for European Union navies to take action against traffickers in worldwide waters came as the first asylum seekers were flown from Italy to Sweden under a hotly disputed relocation scheme to share the burden of Europe’s migrant crisis. “Europe must be categorically against that”.

A few countries, such as Slovakia and Cyprus, have expressed a preference for Christian refugees and Hungary has said the influx of large numbers of Muslim migrants threatens Europe’s “Christian values”.

More than 600,000 refugees have reached Europe via the Mediterranean Sea in 2015, and almost 3,000 have died en route, according to the global Organization for Migration. This is due in part to the fact that 70 per cent of migrants and refugees who arrived in Greece last week immediately crossed into the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at Greece’s Idomeni border. European authorities are reluctant to treat Afghans systematically as refugees, and a result, they are shut out of the relocation process.

“It is the same in my country”, said Guterres, adding the Greek people’s solidarity towards refugees was “most impressive”.

Syria’s war helped create an epic dust storm, scientists say: “Haaretz’s report suggests this is tied to a dramatic change in the Syrian environment, where large-scale agricultural work has ceased and war has literally wracked the land”.

That means, as the Prime Minister noted, helping to stabilise the countries from which the refugees are coming, seeking a solution to the crisis in Syria, a new government in Libya and, crucially, targeting the criminal gangs who are profiting from this human tragedy.

The problems can be solved, but not through a technocratic approach and not without worldwide cooperation, Guterres said. Four smugglers from China and Pakistan, who were charging £15,000 a head to the migrants for their journeys from Asia to the British Isles or North America, were arrested. If we weren’t there to rescue them, half or more than half would drown.

Alfano said Italy was ready to send 100 more asylum seekers to Germany and the Netherlands, and UNHCR said further relocations would take place at the beginning of next week. “We managed it well”, she said. Refugees cross from Turkey in small, inflatable boats often packed to three times their capacity.

Greece hoped to use a winter lull to prepare itself for next summer. Chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials have said the actual number could be much higher because many recent arrivals have not yet registered.