'Migrant numbers significant but not insurmountable'

Strasbourg, Sept 8: Anne Brasseur, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has said the continent should be able to manage high number of migrants escaping the conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere.

"Yes, this is a significant number, but no, this is not an insurmountable figure for a continent as large and wealthy as Europe," she said in a statement on Monday, referring to up to what she said were 300,000 refugees arriving and travelling through Europe.

"Europe is in the centre of a migration and asylum cauldron," Brasseur said, adding: "Each day more and more ingredients are being added to this melting pot of human suffering, and Europe can no longer bury its head and humanity in the sand."

Brasseur was speaking on her return from New York, where she addressed the fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament at the UN headquarters.

During her address at the conference, she warned fellow leaders that if they did not start working together on the refugee issue, they would be "sleepwalking to disaster".

"I was met with polite incredulity at the lack of an organised European response," she said.

IANS