UNHCR Urges EU to Set up ‘Effective Reception Centers’ for Refugees

German police stop cars and check people traveling in them on the A8 motorway at the German Austrian border near Bad Reichenhall, Germany, early 14 September 2015. EPA/BGNES

The United Nations refugee agency has called for the creation of effective reception centers in Greece, Hungary and Italy to address the worsening migration crisis in Europe.

“The recent successive announcements of different border control measures by a number of European countries impacted by the refugee and migration crisis only underlines the urgency of establishing a comprehensive European response,” UNHCR said in a statement ahead a key meeting of EU’s Interior Ministers on Monday.

The UNHCR also called for rapid implementation of a relocation programme based on binding quotas of migrants each member state should take in as proposed by the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.

“People in need of international protection in accordance with international law should be relocated amongst all European Union countries based on a fair distribution mechanism,” the statement read.

If the EU member states fail to agree on a comprehensive coordinated response to the current migrant influx there is risk of creating a ‘legal limbo’, in which refugees in Europe will be unable to find the protection they are seeking, the UNHCR said.

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