Responding to the outcome early this morning of the EU leaders meeting on the refugee crisis, John Dalhuisen, Director of Amnesty International’s Europe programme, said:             

“What was needed was a bold, ambitious new approach. But what we got was the continuation of a failed strategy.

“The proposed €1 billion for refugee-hosting countries is positive but beyond this, the commitments disappoint. EU leaders should have been agreeing on how to ensure safe and legal routes for refugees into Europe and fixing Europe’s failing asylum system.

“Instead, the focus of the proposals on keeping refugees out ignores the realities of a global refugee crisis and states’ obligations to provide protection to those unable to find it elsewhere.

“The relocation figures agreed yesterday won’t significantly relieve the pressure on frontline states and without much more concrete and immediate assistance to these countries, the chaotic tragic scenes we have witnessed in recent weeks, will only continue and likely worsen.”