Refugee crisis: EU splits exposed at emergency summit. EU agrees extra funding but no common policy on refugee crisis.

The UN’s refugee agency has expressed its dismay at the failure of the EU summit to agree on ways of offering refugees legal protection.
In a carefully-worded statement the UNHCR welcomed the allocation of extra resources and the decision to ratify the binding quota plan but it said much more was needed.
It said:

 

UNHCR is disappointed that, notwithstanding relocation, no further measures have been proposed to create more legal pathways for refugees to reach safety in Europe. UNHCR urges a substantial and rapid increase in legal opportunities for refugees to access the EU, including enhanced resettlement and humanitarian admission, family reunification, private sponsorship, and humanitarian and student visas.
The international community as a whole should adopt the type of exceptional response which had been used in other humanitarian crises. Without such avenues, refugees will continue to be left with few options, and the increase in international efforts to crack down on smugglers and traffickers is unlikely to be effective ...
In relation to strengthening border control at the EU external border, UNHCR insists that the management of borders needs to be consistent with national, EU and international law, including guaranteeing the right to seek asylum.

António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, added:“The relocation plan will not put an end to the problem, but it hopefully will be the beginning of a solution ...
Much more needs to be done. The plan can only work if, at entry points in Europe, robust facilities are created to receive, assist, register and screen people. These facilities must have a capacity that could handle the current average 5,000 people arriving every day by boat. They must also offer those in need of international protection a credible alternative to the present chaotic journeys across border after border at the mercy of criminal smugglers.”