• The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) said on Friday they were disappointed with the measures announced by the EU to tackle the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, describing the outcome in Brussels as “a lost opportunity.” James Stapleton is JRS’ International Communications Coordinator and he told Susy Hodges that JRS was expecting something “much stronger” to emerge from the EU meeting and rather than sharing the responsibilities for dealing with this migrant crisis, he saw instead “a shirking of responsibilities.”

    Stapleton said JRS was hoping for and expecting something “much stronger” to emerge from the EU meeting in Brussels on the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, a plan which contained elements of resettlement and visas (for the migrants) and a much stronger focus on saving peoples’ lives as well as tackling the migrant crisis at its roots. Instead, he said, the EU agreed “on a raft of measures” aimed at “hiding the problem.”

    ‘A shirking of responsibilities’

    Stapleton said Europe is “out-sourcing its problems and its responsibilities”. Noting that the British Prime Minister David Cameron had pledged ships, helicopters and other resources but at the same time said his government was not prepared to accept any more asylum seekers in Britain, Stapleton said “what’s happening is a shirking of responsibilities” rather than “a sharing of responsibilities” for dealing with the migrant crisis.

    Source: Vatican Radio