The Egyptian Foreign Ministry expressed concern at any moves by the EU to close its borders to refugees in light of the ongoing conflict in Syria, which has seen thousands of refugees seeking shelter within its borders.
In a statement on Sunday, the ministry quoted deputy minister of foreign affairs Hisham Badr saying that refugees must be treated with respect and protected from all sorts of racism. He made the comments at Saturday’s meeting in London between representatives of the EU and the African Union discussing the ongoing refugee crisis.
The timing of the meeting was crucial, Badr said, bearing in mind the increasing seriousness of the situation and the need for joint international efforts to find solutions. He said Egypt could play an important role in shaping the African-European perspective.
Far from helping the situation, the negative discourses against the refugees in Europe will only make things worse, with racism as a particular top concern. More useful would be to create a workable strategy to ease the plight of refugees.
According to EU border agency Frontex, around 710,000 refugees from various nations entered the EU in the first nine months of 2015, more than double the number in 2014. A large portion of the refugees were Syrians fleeing the ongoing crisis in their country.
