EU response to Syria refugees pitiful: Amnesty

Amnesty International has lashed out at European Union countries for their “pitiful” response to the plight of the Syrian refugees fleeing the bloody crisis in their homeland.

In a Friday report dubbed “An international failure: The Syrian refugee crisis,” the rights group said EU member states are prepared to open their borders to some 12,000 refugees from Syria, which is only 0.5 per cent of the 2.3 million people who have fled the war-ravaged country.

The report also says only 10 EU countries have voiced readiness to take in Syrian refugees, while 18 other EU member states, including Britain and Italy, have offered no place at all.

Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty slammed the 28-nation bloc for its shameful treatment of the Syrian refugees and said the EU leaders should “hang their heads with shame” for providing too little for asylum-seekers from Syria.

“The EU has miserably failed to play its part in providing a safe haven to the refugees who have lost all but their lives. The number of those it’s prepared to resettle is truly pitiful,” said Shetty.

On November 15, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHRC) urged some European Union states, particularly Bulgaria and Greece, to stop returning Syrian refugees from their borders.

“Push-backs and prevention of entry can put asylum-seekers at further risk and expose them to additional trauma,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman, Adrian Edwards.

Over two million Syrian refugees have fled their homeland since the outbreak of unrest in the Arab state in March 2011, with the vast majority heading to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.

The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the foreign-sponsored violence in Syria.