Svoboda Radio reported that 19 people, including 6 children, died as a result of a boat capsizing near Turkey in the Aegean Sea yesterday. According to the UN, this year more than a million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe, mainly by sea. About 800 thousand people reached Greece by sea. Moscow believes that the inflow of refugees to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa is a humanitarian disaster which is “a result of irresponsible and short-sighted interventions in the internal affairs of sovereign states for the purpose of destabilization and violent change of objectionable governments in the region.”
Speaking about the fact that the interference was irresponsible and short-sighted, Maria Zakharova, the Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Minstry, stated: “The Western media published an article saying that the actions of the American administration had been well-planned for the American political establishment. The idea was for a violent change of regime in Syria and it was carried out systematically, step by step. That is, we say that all this was done spontaneously and what we now have is a result of the crisis exodus of people from the Middle East. We can say that this is the result of ill-conceived policies. I think we can argue over this point. Perhaps it was a deliberate policy. At least, many publications are talking about it.”
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of today the number of refugees and migrants who have arrived in Europe has reached 972,500 people. The number of dead and missing at sea is 3625 people. In 2015 the main countries of destination of migrants to the EU were Greece – 800 thousand people, Italy – more than 150 thousand people. The countries of origin were mainly Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia. Turkey, according to the same source, has accepted more than 2 million Syrian refugees, 2.2 million on its territory.
The Russian Foreign Ministry considers it important to ensure control over migration flows, establish additional channels of legal migration, to eliminate the possibility of Europe being penetrated by terrorists along with the people who really need help. “It is also necessary to distinguish clearly between categories of refugees under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which was adopted in 1951, and the Protocol of 1967, and illegal economic migrants who simply take advantage of the situation,” Zakharova stated.
She pointed out the low impact the EU efforts have on resolving the crisis: “The reasons seem to be not so much the mass character of this phenomenon, but the absence of an agreed position of the EU regarding the practical measures to resolve this difficult and unfortunately growing problem. All this has seriously affected the situation of refugees facing significant challenges on their way to Europe. One of them is probably not a problem, but a tragedy, this is a death, because, of course, the figures speak for themselves. And the chaos – it is difficult to describe the situation that we are seeing on the borders of the European states in any other way, including within the Schengen area – is fraught with the loss of the governmental control over the situation.”
Russia urges its European colleagues to view their international duties in the sphere of protecting the rights of refugees more responsibly, relying on Resolution 2240 of the UN SC of October 9th 2015, on the situation in the Mediterranean Sea.
Russia stands for intensification and coordination of efforts of the international community to find political solutions to the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa and to resist international terrorism, primarily Daesh, on the basis of commonly recognized international laws and the key role of the UN.
“The main goal is to eliminate the initial reasons for the current migration crisis, and first of all it is about a peaceful settlement of the situations in Syria and Libya. European capitals are beginning to understand this, even though the process is going slower than we would like it to go,” Zakharova said.
According to her, “another important moment is supporting the countries where migrants are coming from in socio-economic development and establishing statehood. The countries responsible for initiating these conflicts must be responsible for providing their victims with help.”
