Antonio GUTERRES, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, has an exchange of views with European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on asylum policies and the situation of asylum seekers and internally displaced persons around the world. Statements by Sonia ALFANO (ALDE, IT), Sarah LUDFORD (ALDE, UK) and Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE).

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

GUTERRES, António (PT)

UNHCR

ERNST, Cornelia (The Left, DE)

LUDFORD, Sarah (ALDE, UK, Baroness)

ALFANO, Sonia (ALDE, IT)

Exchange of views with Antonio GUTERRES, UN High Commissioner for Refugees: extract - LIBE Committee

Arrival of Guterres into the meeting room together with MEP Carlos Coelho and taking his chair (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Ant&#243;nio GUTERRES, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, "When one looks at today's world, the number of refugees and other forcibly displaced people has been relatively stable in the past 2, 3 years. We have about 16 million refugees today counting with the Palestinian refugees, 27 million internally displaced within the borders of their own countries because of conflicts and the number of asylum seekers in the developed world in general and in Europe in particular has also remained stable, in Europe about a quarter of a million in the last 2 years. This stability shows on one side the resilience of conflicts and on the other side the difficulty in finding solutions".

<br />SOUNDBITE (English), Ant&oacute;nio GUTERRES, UN High Commissioner for Refugees,  "Our major concern is the fact that in an area where people can move freely, as a Portuguese citizen I can go up to Berlin without showing my passport and even without changing my bank notes, but in this area we still have very different asylum systems from country to country."

SOUNDBITE (English), Ant&oacute;nio GUTERRES, UN High Commissioner for Refugees,  "Let's be very effective in cracking down on criminals but let's also be very attentive in protecting their victims".

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Sonia ALFANO (ALDE, IT), "Talking about the problem of refugees repatriated to Libyan prisons and the agreements between certain EU countries and third countries such as Libya, she says: "All this.. Is it not detrimental to the European Union to insist on concluding framework agreements with countries which not only have not yet ratified the Geneva Convention but which also do not show any intention to move forward on those important issues?"

SOUNDBITE (English), Ant&oacute;nio GUTERRES, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, responding to her question: "It is absolutely essential that any agreement with a third party be in full respect of international law and namely of the UN Convention. And of course what you have mentioned is very important because in today's situation, specifically about Libya, there are no guarantees of protection to be granted to refugees, according to the UN".

SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah LUDFORD (ALDE, UK), "Considering that actually we have a lower volume of asylum seekers in Europe than we had 10 years ago, it's pretty shocking how shabby our systems have become".

SOUNDBITE (German) Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE), "I think it's impossible to have such limited powers for the UNHCR so that you can't even get involved in FRONTEX operations. We agreed here in Parliament that FRONTEX should have a human rights dimension to it and that's a decision we took in a plenary session so I think we'll have to put some pressure around that."