Norwegian Refugee Council Warns EU Against Closing of Borders

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has warned against the closing of European national borders and called on European leaders to agree instead on a credible collective response to the current migration crisis.

"A European fortress approach, with closed borders, will only serve to dilute EU laws and values and send an appalling signal to the rest of the world regarding our commitment to uphold international refugee law", Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General, Jan Egeland, said in a statement on Wednesday, ahead of the meeting of the European Council on 18 and 19 February.

At the summit in Brussels, European leaders will discuss options to resolve the worst migration and refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. The European Council will look at the implementation of the decisions already taken and prepare the ground for future decisions to be taken at its next meeting in March. Discussions will focus on humanitarian assistance, external border management, the implementation of the EU-Turkey Action Plan agreed in November and the operation of hotspots.

The NRC urged the European Union and its member states to resist the imposition of new border restrictions and instead hammer out a common European approach to the migration challenge.

"If not, long-term and large scale refugee camps in Greece, the Balkans and elsewhere may be the end result," the NRC warned.

"If the Greek-Macedonian border is sealed, or if Greece is suspended from Schengen, Europe will see massive refugee camps on its soil as large numbers of people seeking protection will become trapped - unable to travel beyond Greece, nor return," Egeland said.

To avoid that risk, the EU needs to commit to receiving more refugees through its relocation scheme, increase support...