• Spanish private donations to UNHCR refugee work highest in Europe
• EC report says Spain missed deadline for resettling 467 asylum seekers
The representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Spain (UNHCR, or ACNUR in Spanish) has called on the Spanish government to assume “greater responsibility and commitment” in meeting its pledge to shelter Syrian refugees, following issuance of a European Commission (EC) report chastising Spain for failing to meet a March 31st deadline to resettle 467 of the 865 refugees the country has pledged to accept during 2016.
UNHCR representative in Spain Francesca Friz-Prguda told the EU’s mixed commission on refugees Tuesday that as of March 10th the Spanish government had agreed to resettle the 467 refugees from camps in Greece, Italy and Turkey, but a month later has changed its position to say that the resettlement of the refugees would be spaced out in smaller segments throughout the remaining nine months of 2016.
Friz-Prguda said that Spain has all the necessary conditions in place to increase the number of refugees it accepts, adding that while individual private donations from Spain to UNHCR’s work with refugees are the highest among European countries the government itself has only accepted 1 percent of all the asylum applications from refugees seeking resettlement in Europe.
► Read More in Spanish at El País, El Día and Europa Press …
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