On behalf of all its members, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, Hon. Karim Darwish, expresses his deep concern for the humanitarian and political crisis unfolding at the border between Greece and Turkey, which sees the sudden flow of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, particularly many vulnerable unaccompanied minors, elderly and women, moving from Turkey to Greece.
Hon. Darwish joins the UN High-Commissioner for Refugees and the Director General of IOM in urging the international community and the EU in particular to adopt and implement, as a matter of urgency, agreed policies based on solidarity and burden sharing, to avoid that countries be left alone to deal with the situation. He further stresses the need to provide, in a human manner and full respect of international law and human rights, all refugees with basic assistance and services, as stated in the PAM Resolution “From crisis to governance of migration and refugee flows”, adopted a few days ago at the 14th PAM Plenary Session in Athens.
PAM is convinced that the only way to deal with such sudden mass displacements remains to address the root causes, so that civilians are not forced to leave home in the first place, and this includes the immediate de-escalation of the military confrontation in North-East Syria.
Naples, 9 March 2020