MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2020) European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has said on Thursday that the bloc's member states should "de-dramatize" the political debate on migration if they wish to control the movement of people in an orderly way.
"I think the debate on migration has suffered for many years by being dramatized, and I think that we need to de-dramatize the political debate on migration if we would like to be able to manage migration in an orderly way," Johansson said during a high-level EU conference on migration and asylum.
The bloc's commissioner for home affairs stated that the situation on some of the European Union's external borders, such as the Italian island of Lampedusa and the Greek island of Lesbos, was concerning. Despite this, Johansson said that pragmatic and sober debate is required in order to solve these matters.
"The situation for migrants could be dramatic, for sure. The situation on some of the European islands is also actually quite dramatic I should say, but the policy debate needs to be de-dramatized and needs to be pragmatic and sober if we would like to solve this together," Johansson stated.
During the conference, EU leaders have been discussing the European Commission's proposal, first published in late September, to establish a new Pact on Migration and Asylum.
The new initiative seeks to rebuild mutual trust between the European Union's member states by establishing efficient migrant processing procedures and sharing responsibility for migrants and asylum seekers across the bloc.
As many as 84,340 migrants and asylum seekers have reached Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and Malta using land and sea routes from Turkey and North Africa throughout 2020 so far, according to data published by the UN Refugee Agency.
