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SERBIA / GUTERRES PRESSER
STORY: SERBIA / GUTERRES PRESSER
TRT: 01:33
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 NOVEMBER 2015, PRESEVO, SERBIA
17 NOVEMBER 2015, PRESEVO, SERBIA
1. Wide shot, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic greeting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres and shaking hands
2. Med shot, security personnel and worker at UNHCR reception centre
3. Med shot, Guterres and Vucic visiting reception centre
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“Even if Serbia is not yet a member of the European Union, it has given a lesson to some of the members of the Union for the exemplary way in which Serbia has been managing this crisis, and I want to express to the Prime Minister our very, very deep appreciation and our admiration and gratitude.”
4. Med shot, Guterres talking to male refugee
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“We are witnessing a dramatic succession of terrorist attacks in different parts of the world that are causing tremendous pain and tremendous suffering to innocent people, and must be condemned with all, all our commitment. But it is also important to say that it was not the refugee movement that created terrorism. It is terrorism together with tyranny, together with war that have created refugee movements.”
6. Med shot, Guterres talking to female refugee in medical facility
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“And we have also been insisting for the need of Europe to be united and to create conditions for a massive reception capacity at entry point, where everybody can be screened, can be identified, security checks can take place, and then people can be distributed orderly.”
8. Med shot, Guterres and Vucic visiting UNHCR refugee reception centre
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said today (17 Nov) refugees should not be blamed for terror attacks.
He made the comments during a one-day visit to Serbia, where he visited a refugee reception centre in the town of Presevo, together with the country’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Currently, Serbia is the first country on the so-called West Balkans route where nearly all those arriving are being registered and fingerprinted. Since the beginning of the year, 436,000 asylum seekers have been registered in Serbia, with Presevo being the main entry point.
“Even if Serbia is not yet a member of the European Union, it has given a lesson to some of the members of the Union for the exemplary way in which Serbia has been managing this crisis, and I want to express to the Prime Minister our very, very deep appreciation and our admiration and gratitude,” Guterres told the media.
Speaking about the terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris, Guterres stressed it was “absolute nonsense” to accuse refugees, after official reports confirmed the fingerprints of one of the suspects involved in last week’s coordinated attacks in Paris, matched the prints of a Syrian man registered as an asylum-seeker in Greece.
“It was not the refugee movement that created terrorism. It is terrorism together with tyranny, together with war that have created refugee movements,” Guterres added.
He also urged European governments not to make any unilateral moves in the aftermath of the recent attacks, and reiterated his organisation's position that refugees and migrants should be screened as they enter the EU.
“We have also been insisting for the need of Europe to be united and to create conditions for a massive reception capacity at entry point, where everybody can be screened, can be identified, security checks can take place, and then people can be distributed orderly,” the UNHCR chief said.
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