Although the European Union (EU) has committed US$1.75 billion to relief efforts in and around Syria, making it the largest international donor, it has shown little solidarity with countries like Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, in terms of helping to shoulder an increasingly unmanageable refugee burden.
“While the management of borders is a sovereign right and legitimate priority of states, the means must be found to ensure that Syrians seeking protection at EU frontiers can gain access to territory, procedures and safety,” Guterres noted.
Recognition rates for Syrian asylum seekers are generally high elsewhere in Europe, but the ECRE report notes that a number of countries are granting subsidiary or humanitarian protection rather than refugee status, despite the fact that, as Guterres put it, “people fleeing Syria fall squarely within the framework of the 1951 Refugee Convention, and should be granted protection accordingly”.
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