The Spanish Defensora del Pueblo, Soledad Becerril, has asked the European and Mediterranean Ombudsmen to jointly ask the European Commission for “urgent humanitarian assistance action” on the part of the EU for the refugees.
The proposal was sent by letter to the Ombudsman of the EU, Emily O’Reilly; to the chairman of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI), Alan Miller; and to the chairman of the Association of Mediterranean Ombudsmen (AOM), Igli Totozani.
In her letter, the Defensora says that the move towards Europe of thousands of people who are fleeing from war, persecution and death is, “undoubtedly, the greatest humanitarian crisis of the century. The pictures of families with terrified children who are fleeing and the tales of the hardship that they suffer in order to get to a safe country take us back to the days of the Second World War”.
“We know well that it is up to the EU member states to make decisions about people seeking asylum, but a humanitarian situation exists that we, defenders of human rights, cannot ignore”, she points out.
As a result, Soledad Becerril has proposed that the Ombudsmen make an urgent declaration addressed to the chairman of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, asking him for “urgent humanitarian assistance action for all the people currently trying to reach Europe, and for the asylum proposals of European countries to be re-assessed”.
https://www.defensordelpueblo.es/noticias/la-defensora-pide-a-los-ombudsman-europeos-y-del-mediterraneo-reclamar-una-accion-humanitaria-urgente-de-la-ue/
