The mayor of an Italian town in Sicily slammed the European Union (EU) policy on asylum seekers who are struggling to reach the shores of Europe, stating that the stories told by those who fled resemble the Holocaust.
"We're living a genocide, and in a few years we Europeans risk being found responsible," said Palermo's mayor Leoluca Orlando, with thousands of refugees having died as they tried to cross the Mediterranean. "The stories told by survivors who make it to Sicily resemble the accounts told by survivors of Dachau and Auschwitz (concentration camps)," he said.
Mr Orlando called on the EU to do more assist asylum seekers, as they flee war in their homeland.
"If Syrians, coming from a country at war, have the immediate right to refugee status, why stop them taking a plane ticket from Istanbul to Paris, for example, and oblige them to go via Libya and the Mediterranean sea?" he asked.
Last month the European Union approved a plan to use naval forces to intercept migrant smuggler ships operating from North African countries, such as Libya.
See our earlier post: EU approves naval force to address migrant smuggling from North Africa (18 May 2015)
"We're living a genocide, and in a few years we Europeans risk being found responsible," said Palermo's mayor Leoluca Orlando, with thousands of refugees having died as they tried to cross the Mediterranean. "The stories told by survivors who make it to Sicily resemble the accounts told by survivors of Dachau and Auschwitz (concentration camps)," he said.
Mr Orlando called on the EU to do more assist asylum seekers, as they flee war in their homeland.
"If Syrians, coming from a country at war, have the immediate right to refugee status, why stop them taking a plane ticket from Istanbul to Paris, for example, and oblige them to go via Libya and the Mediterranean sea?" he asked.
Last month the European Union approved a plan to use naval forces to intercept migrant smuggler ships operating from North African countries, such as Libya.
See our earlier post: EU approves naval force to address migrant smuggling from North Africa (18 May 2015)