More than one million migrants go to Europe in 2015

(Vatican Radio) According to UN estimates, more than one million refugees and migrants have entered Europe in 2015.

Listen to Christopher Wells’ report:

The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, along with the International Organization for Migration, said on Tuesday that more than one million people had fled to Europe over the course of the past year. In a press release, the UNHCR said “the number of people displaced by war and conflict is the highest seen in Western and Central Europe since the 1990s.”

Approximately half of those entering Europe were fleeing the conflict in Syria. Afghans accounted for about twenty percent of the total, with Iraqis representing seven percent.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said it was “important to recognize the positive contributions that refugees and migrants make to the societies in which they live and also honour core European values.” William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International Organization for Migration added, “We know migration is inevitable, it’s necessary and it’s desirable.” But, he said, “But it’s not enough to count the number of those arriving—or the nearly 4,000 this year reported missing or drowned. We must also act. Migration must be legal, safe and secure for all—both for the migrants themselves and the countries that will become their new home.”

Europe has struggled to formulate a united response to the unprecedented numbers of migrants and refugees, with agencies such as the UNHCR and the IOM attempting to coordinate emergency responses.