UN rights chief slams anti-refugee moves

NEW YORK

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has sharply criticized anti-immigration measures taken by some European countries in response to what the UN says is the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

"One cannot conceive of a European continent which is going to thrive economically if borders are (...) fenced off with walls and barbed wire and machine-gun nests and observation towers," Zeid told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York on Monday.

"In a century where finance and capital can move in a nanosecond, and yet are we going to have long lines at borders while every vehicle is checked and X-rayed to make sure there are no migrants hiding in the fuel tank?" he said.

So far this year, over 819,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by making perilous journeys across the Mediterranean, according to UN figures, with more than 3,400 people having lost their lives or been reported missing as they seek to reach the continent.

Some 400,000 arrivals by sea are Syrians fleeing a civil war that has claimed more than 250,000 lives and made the country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people, according to the UN.

The crisis has prompted diverse responses from European nations, with some countries of transit employing harshly restrictive policies. Some countries suggested that most of those flooding into Europe were migrants who chose to move not because of a direct threat of persecution or death, but mainly to improve their lives.

Calling for Europe to establish new migration rules, Zeid said it is not just refugees who are entitled to protection under international law.

"It's all migrants," he said. "They all have their human rights. They all should not be abused."

Zeid's comments came as Friday's deadly attacks in Paris -- in which a militant posing as a refugee has been implicated -- prompted some far-right parties and newspapers to claim the deaths are a result of current refugee policies.