Don’t blame refugees, UN urges

GENEVA: The UN urged European countries yesterday not to react to Friday’s attacks in Paris by rejecting or blaming refugees, the vast majority of whom were fleeing persecution or conflict.

“We are concerned about reactions by some states to end the programmes being put in place, backtracking from commitments made to manage the refugee crisis (i e relocation), or proposing the erection of more barriers,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees chief spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said. “We are deeply disturbed by language that demonises refugees as a group.”

She said the UNHCR was concerned by the “yet unconfirmed” report that one of the attackers in the Paris attack may have entered Europe as part of the influx of refugees”.

“The best response would be to immediately improve arrival processing in Greece and Italy and implement the EU’s plan to relocate 160 000 refugees,” Fleming said.

“We believe that if this had been done from the beginning, we never would have seen these images on our screens of people on the march through Europe. It wouldn’t have solved it, but it would have gone a long way to managing it.”

Asked if the UNHCR had warned of the risk, she said the commissioner had warned in general terms of the importance of proper screening.

Prejudice

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said the biggest group of people to suffer at the hands of Islamic State militants, also known as Isis, were Muslims in Syria and Iraq.

“If this attack is allowed to feed discrimination and prejudice it will be playing straight into the hands of Isis,” he said. “Are we going to play their game for them?”

Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said that out of about 1.1 million arrivals in Europe in the past few years, at most a handful had names that raised questions with respect to possible links to extremism.

The organisation’s figures show that 832 193 migrants and refugees have arrived in EU countries so far this year, and at least 3 505 have died in the attempt.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed yesterday to stick to a plan to take in 25 000 Syrian refugees by January 1, even though a growing number of critics say this could threaten security following the attacks in Paris.

The affair is threatening to become the first political challenge for Trudeau’s fledgling Liberal government, which took power earlier this month. He campaigned on the promise to bring in more refugees, saying Canada should do more to help tackle the Middle East crisis.

But in the wake of last week’s attacks in Paris, even politicians who backed his plan say he should push back the deadline. – Reuters