António Guterres: "We must give legal support to the refugees since they leave until they reach the host country"

Denouncing the management of the refugees crisis of the EU  and many of its countries, had been at the core of the public conference closing the Party of the European Left (EL) Executive Board in Porto.

The EL has declared in a very clear position the solidarity with all those fleeing  from armed conflict and its advocacy for human and refugees rights, protected by the international jurisdiction that has been violated by the agreement between the EU and the Turkish regime. With that agreement Europe closes eyes, ignoring its founding principles, to shield its borders paying an authoritarian regime to play as gendarme and prevent the entry of refugees into Europe.

The EL has also criticized the architects and the origins of wars caused and fueled by the major Western powers to take control of resources and take advantage of geopolitical situations in different regions of the world.

Likewise, on behalf of the vice-president Maite Mola, the EL has denounced the double victimization that women and children suffer in their flight from  wars.

To develop the topic, the Portuguese Bloco de Esquerda, hosting the meeting, invited Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to December 2015, and  former Portuguese Prime Minister of the socialist government, from 1995 to 2001.

Guterres,  one of seven candidates for the next General Secretary of the United Nations, made an impassioned speech about the hypocrisy shown by the EU when it comes to refugees, closing borders to Escaping people who sometimes find the death and illness in their flight: under the attack by the armed and security forces, the barbed wire fences and gases blocking their way. Meanwhile these doors are submissive and generous opened to the circulation of the capital and the finance that do not know borders.

Today there is a combination of two factors, Guterres declared, the big acceleration of the migration "that is increasingly connected to international conflicts" and the fact that two-thirds of those asylum seekers remain in interior displacements, being as a result a small minority in refugee camps.

"We must fight against the smugglers and traffickers of refugees and give legal support to those asylum seekers, since they leave their house until they arrive in the host country", claimed  Guterres. He stressed that the only thing that the refugees want is to return to their homes but they are abandoned by the international support. “What the international community has to do is to solve the conflicts” the Portuguese ex-prime minister underlined.

The former head of UNHCR, warned on the danger represented by the growing populism which keep feeding  "fear of the refugees” among the people , "an alleged invasion", to cultivate xenophobia, racism and nationalism.

He pointed out, in addition, the malevolent will of associate terrorism with refugees. He dismantled the fallacy, explaining that, on the one hand, as terrorists it would be a waste of time going through all the bureaucratic formalities necessary for seeking asylum, part of which would be reported, something  absurd; and, on the other hand, the terrorists are trained in the countries in which they live.

The solution to put an end to this unfounded fear is to enrich the multiculturalism and work against the social disintegration.

During the debate, the representative of the Turkish party ODP (Party of Freedom and Solidarity) in theEL Executive Board explained the political situation in their country "under the dictatorial regime of Erdogan", how it affects the entire population, the repression and attacks on the freedom of expression, the lack of guarantees and violation of the human rights, as well  as  the needs that the government would have to cover in order to supply adequately the refugees with, such as the development of public services..

The Greek comrades, as for them, explained how the population and the whole  country are working to solve the humanitarian crisis, and assist  as better as they can the needs of refugees arriving massively to Greece, so as to continue their trip towards Europe. At this point, they emphasized the contribution of Guterres in the sense that there is not only need to be in solidarity with the refugees but also with the first countries that receive them in order to help them to cope with the impact on the economy, employment, health, education, infrastructure etc..

The Germans brought a key point in the debate when they pointed that the problem is not only in the flow of refugees but "in the perception of the refugees". They also criticized the fact that the public opinion talk a lot of humanitarianism but little of the consequences left by the neo-colonization "which shatters countries not only in the East but also in Africa".

 There  is only one way to resolve the crisis: the EU shall change its policy for a solidarity-based response and all countries assume their responsibilities in addition to work on the resolution of conflicts.

In this sense it has been showed how Portugal, with a progressive government, has given a much more supportive response that the majority of European countries, hosting 20,000 emigrants. In the same way, the German Die Linke highlighted that  it would be perfectly acceptable to Germany to host over 130,000 refugees, calling for the end of the hypocrisy of the double-sided game that Merkel is playing.