The head of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR Filippo Grandi on Friday urged European leaders attending a mini-summit in Brussels this weekend to "seize the opportunity" to forge a united stance on migration that safeguards the right to asylum while protecting borders.
"The moment has come to change things for the better. And today I am urging European States to seize this opportunity to find a new and united approach that answers the shared needs of all countries to be able to manage their borders and their migration policies," Grandi said.
Such an approach must "simultaneously uphold the European and international asylum standards that emerged from the Second World War. This is achievable," Grandi underlined.
"Coherence and united have been absent from European countries' policies on migration and asylum for too long," Grandi said.
"UNHCR is here to help. We are ready to work with European states in developing a way forward that is both realistic and principled. One rooted in solidarity and cooperation," he stressed.
Grandi deplored a recent incident in the Mediterranean when 629 migrants including unaccompanied minors and pregnant women spent a over a week at sea aboard an NGO-run rescue ship earlier this month after Italy's far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini refused to allow the boat to dock at an Italian port.
"Such events put lives and international norms of rescue at sea at risk, and should never happen," Grandi said.
Although the number of migrants and refugees crossing to Europe by sea are "dramatically lower" so far this year than in the same period of the past two years, the "shockwaves are still reverberating" from the million people who arrived by boat in 2015 at the height of the Mediterranean crisis, Grandi said.
According to figures issued on Friday by the UN migration agency, 40,944 people reached Europe this year by boat through 20 June compared with 84,675 this time last year and over 215,997 in the same period of 2016.
Deaths have also fallen over the period, according to the UN's International Organisation for Migration. A total of 960 people perished this year through 20 June attempting to cross the Mediterranean, against 2,133 through 21 June 2017 and 2,911 over the same period of 2016, IOM said.
"Europe today is no longer in the crux of a migration or refugee crisis," Grandi stated, noting that more than 9 out of 10 of the world's forcibly displaced people are outside Europe - either in their own countries or neighbouring ones.
European support and solidarity towards these countries - mostly in the Global South - as well as towards transit countries "is more critical than ever" Grandi said, urging aid to refugee-hosting countries and resettlement places that offer refugees legal routes to new countries.
"EU policies on asylum can and should set an example on how to manage refugee situations with compassion and solidarity," Grandi concluded.
Leaders from 10 EU member states including Italy, France, Spain and Austria will meet in Brussels on Sunday to discuss how best to stem the flow of migrants to the bloc ahead of the European Union summit of heads of state and government next week at which migration will be a central topic.
