MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2020) The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will analyze the European Union's new pact on migration with regard to its ability to address the long-due reforms of EU asylum policies, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Spain told Sputnik.
In late September, the European Commission came up with a proposal of a new migration pact that is supposed to give member states more flexibility in claiming their share of responsibility in handling the migrant inflow. In the past, the front-line countries � Greece, Italy and Spain � have decried that the lion share of responsibilities associated with the reception and accommodation of sea migrants rests with them with no or little support by other member-states located further deep in Europe's landmass.
"We need to now analyze in depth the proposals and any possible impact on refugees and asylum seekers. In any case, UNHCR considers that approach on migration and asylum that the Commission is referring to should include elements of predictability and solidarity," Maria Jesus Vega said.
The UNHCR spokeswoman pointed to the practice of push-backs, delays in letting rescued sea migrants disembark and the crisis that followed the devastating fires at the Moria refugee facility in Greece's Lesbos island as having "further highlighted the urgent need to reform the EU's management of migration and asylum."
According to the official, the number of migrant arrivals to Europe in 2020, including arrivals by sea, has decreased compared to last year. For example, the number of sea arrivals to Spain from January to October was 17 percent less than during the same period in 2019. But there still were what Vega called "vulnerable cases" among those arrivals, including unaccompanied minors, female victims of trafficking and people fleeing persecution on political, religious, race or gender grounds.
"With relatively few new arrivals of refugees and migrants to Europe, now is the time for common action," the UNHCR spokeswoman added.
The EU migration pact was unveiled by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier than scheduled as a matter of urgency after fires destroyed the Moria camp, Lesbos' largest, and put a question mark next to what to do with thousands of former residents who were left without shelter in the face of a pandemic.
The pact offered member states "flexible options" for their contribution. They, in particular, can choose to relocate recently-arrived persons, take responsibility for expelling a person with no right to stay on behalf of another EU country, or provide some operational or longer-term assistance in responding to the challenge.
