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UNHCR / EUROPE MILLION REFUGEES
STORY: UNHCR / EUROPE MILLION REFUGEES
TRT: 04:45
SOURCE: UNHCR /FILE
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 30 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE – 2 OCTOBER 2015, LESBOS, GREECE
1. Various shots, aerial shots of refugees in rubber boats
30 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for UNHCR:
“This is a staggering increase over just 12 months. At the end of 2014 we had 219 000 arrivals on the Mediterranean to Europe, this was also a record. This is almost 5 times that level. Unfortunately we are also seeing an increase in the total of deaths, almost 4 000 lives lost in 2015.”
FILE – NOVEMBER 2015, LESBOS, GREECE
3. Various shots, people disembarking
30 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for UNHCR:
“I think that the staggering number of arrivals on the Mediterranean this year, the 4000 lives that have been lost. The fact that people are continuing to arrive, even today we had almost 4000 people arriving on the Aegean islands. This all begs the question: Why is it that a million of people have to arrive by smugglers boat? I think there has to be much more focus on safe and regular alternatives to this. And those alternatives do exist. You have visa programs, you have resettlement programs, you have other arrangements. And much more serious focus on those arrangements is going to be needed.”
FILE – 17 APRIL 2015, LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
5. Various shots, survivors from a boat on fire
30 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for UNHCR:
“Sadly the underlying causes of these movements which are the conflicts we are seeing in this world are not going away. Therefore, we expect more people to arrive in 2016. And that too means that there has to be a lot more work in finding sustainable solutions to the situation.”
FILE - JANUARY 2015, CALABRIA, ITALY
7. Wide shot, ship docking
8. Wide shot, refugees walking
30 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for UNHCR:
“At the moment we have had improvement in 2015 in the sense that there is better search and rescue on the Mediterranean. But the reception conditions and reception arrangements in Europe, and proper screening, proper facilities, proper distribution of people around Europe, additional resettlement from the region and further funding for the situation of refugee around the world such as surrounding Syria and else where. Those measures still need a lot of work around them. So we have a great deal of work ahead of us to do about trying to bring bout better international management to the situation.”
FILE –22 OCTOBER 2015, BAPSKA, SERBIA-CROATIA BORDER
10. Med shot, people waiting behind the fence
11. Various shots, police screening refugees
12. Wide shot, crowd chanting "open! open!"
13. Close up, boy shivering
30 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for UNHCR:
“UNHCR is doing many things. W are, one, advocating on political level for answer to this and action to bring about those answers. On a daily bases we have more than 600 people working through the countries of Europe where refuges and migrants are arriving - getting everything they can. Getting immediate help to people – look at the urgent health. And their needs people have. And look at their protection issues. Try to do what we can for this population that remains on the move. Even in winter now, even with cold temperatures. People are still arriving, they still need help. This a humanitarian emergency that is playing itself out in Europe itself.”
FILE - 16 NOVEMBER 2015, LESBOS, GREECE
15. Wide shot, boat arrives on the shores of Lesbos
16. Wide shot, people jumping off the boat
17. Close up, mother crying holding her children
18. Various shots, people wading water to get to shore
19. Various shots, volunteers helping newcomers
According to figures just released by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over one million refugees and migrants have fled to Europe by sea this year, many on board dangerously inadequate vessels run by people smugglers.
UNHCR's latest figures show that some 1,000,573 people had reached Europe across the Mediterranean, mainly to Greece and Italy, in 2015. Of these, 3,735 were missing, believed drowned.
Report also said 84 per cent of those arriving in Europe came from the world's top 10 refugee producing countries, strengthening UNHCR's belief that most of the people arriving in Europe were fleeing war and persecution.
UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards asked "Why is it that a million people have to enter Europe by smugglers boat? The scale of these sea crossings, the fact that people continue to arrive daily in their thousands on the Aegean islands, and that nearly 4,000 lives have been lost in 2015, all beg that question," said senior.
He added in "there are abundant regular, safe and legal means of managing this and they need serious looking at.
UNHCR has urged both people and governments to intensify efforts to facilitate legal entry routes to Europe.
In addition to the sea crossings, recent figures also estimated that a further 34,000 have crossed from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land.
The number of people displaced by war and conflict is currently the highest seen in Western and Central Europe since the Balkan crises of the 1990s, when several conflicts broke out in the former Yugoslavia.
One in two of people who crossed the Mediterranean this year – half a million people – were Syrians escaping the war in their country. Afghans accounted for 20 per cent and Iraqis for seven per cent.
Despite strong winds and choppy waves, on December 30 dozens of families continued to land on the Greek island of Lesvos in overstuffed inflatable boats designed to carry just eight people. One boat arrived carrying 69 refugees from Afghanistan.
Over 800,000 refugees and migrants came via the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece, accounting for 80 per cent of the people arriving irregularly in Europe by sea this year. At the same time, the number of people crossing from North Africa into Italy dropped slightly, from 170,000 in 2014 to around 150,000 in 2015.
The number of people crossing the Mediterranean increased steadily from around 5,500 in January to reach a monthly peak in October of over 221,000.
After an initial chaotic reaction which resulted in tens of thousands of people moving from Greece through the Western Balkans and northwards, and finding themselves blocked at various borders, a more coordinated European response is beginning to take shape.
UNHCR launched an emergency response to support and complement European efforts. Over 600 emergency staff and resources were deployed to 20 different locations, providing life-saving assistance and protection, and advocating for human rights and access to asylum – particularly for refugees with specific needs, such as unaccompanied children and women-headed households.
Much more needs to be done, however, to reinforce the required reception capacity at the points of entry, to allow for the humane and effective accommodation, assistance, registration and screening of people arriving every day – to identify those who are in need of protection, those that should be relocated to other countries within the European Union, and those who do not qualify for refugee protection and for whom effective and dignified return mechanisms have to be put in place.
At the same time, UNHCR continues to call for safe, regular ways for refugees to find safety through more resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes, more flexible visa arrangements, more private sponsorship programmes and other possibilities.
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