UN chief lavishes praise on Portugal for welcoming refugees

LISBON - The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has lauded Portugal in the backdrop of hosting refugees, amid an ensuing refugee crisis.

Speaking on the occasion of the reception of the University of Lisbon Prize, Guterres praised Portugal as a country 'exemplary in its policy of welcoming refugees' besides heaping scorn on other European countries.

"It is true that our peripheral location in Europe meant that we had less pressure from asylum seekers than other European countries. But it is also true that other countries even more peripheral than us, until recently in refugee crises, didn't have the same generosity and the same openness," he said.

Guterres was of the opinion that the countries, particularly in eastern Europe redeemed themselves in the recent refugee crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the UN leader recalled that the same did not occur in the recent past, "in which refugees from Syria moved through the Balkans in a chaotic way, seeing doors closed one after the other".

The UN Chief welcomed the openness that has been depicted over the last few months towards the crisis in Ukraine, but left a warning as well.

"It cannot but make us reflect on why Europe welcomes Ukrainian refugees and in so many countries Europeans were so reticent to receive Syrian and African refugees," he inquired.

The UN Secretary General also implied that the refugee situation frustrates the less developed countries and cautioned that it instills in them anger as well. 

Guterres said this situation "caused and causes in many who live in the so-called 'global south' a certain frustration, even a certain anger, which makes it difficult for them to express the solidarity that Europeans expect when Europe faces a devastating crisis, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and all the consequences this has had on our daily lives, in European countries and even more dramatically in third world countries".

The University of Lisbon Prize was awarded to Antonio Guterres in 2020 but has been delivered now.