UN official says rich world should take 1 mn Syria refugees

(ANSA) - London, April 22 - Francois Crépeau, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, has said that the world's wealthy countries need to devise a plan to receive one million Syrian refugees over the next five years in order to stop migrant-boat disasters in the Mediterranean. In an interview with British daily The Guardian, Crépeau said the European Union's failure to act was allowing people traffickers to thrive. He added that the plan could be extended to other nationalities fleeing war, including Eritreans. "We know a great number of Syrians in particular are going to leave these countries and if we don't provide any official mechanism for them to do so, they will resort to smugglers. The inaction of Europe is actually what creates the market for smugglers," said Crépeau.
    "We could collectively offer to resettle one million Syrians over the next five years. "For a country like the UK, this would probably be around 14,000 Syrians a year for five years. "For Canada, it would mean less than 9,000 a year for five years - a drop in the bucket. For Australia, it would probably be less than 5,000 per year for five years.
    "We can manage that".