UN urges Europe to help Italy with refugees

The United Nations (UN) refugee agency has called on Europe to assist Italy with defusing what it has described as the “unfolding tragedy” of tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers arriving on the country’s shores.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi made the plea on Saturday, saying that Italy needed more international support to tackle the growing number of refugees who have braved the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of reaching Europe this year.

“What is happening in front of our eyes in Italy is an unfolding tragedy,” Grandi said in a statement. “In the course of last weekend, 12,600 migrants and refugees arrived on its shores, and an estimated 2,030 have lost their lives in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year.”

Acknowledging that Rome was “playing its part” in accepting and protecting those rescued from the Mediterranean, the UN official said, “These efforts must be continued and strengthened. But this cannot be an Italian problem alone.”

Grandi stressed that Europe had to follow an “urgent distribution system” of refugees and should widen legal channels for the admission of asylum seekers.

In a separate development, a video emerged on Saturday, showing refugees stranded at a border crossing between Italy and France near the coastal city of Ventimiglia, where they have set up a makeshift camp despite repeated expulsions of refugees trying to cross to the French side.

SS