Sep 03 - ERG Says Gibraltar Must Also Help Refugees

Gibraltar must play its part alongside the community of European nations to extend shelter and assistance in the current refugee and asylum crisis that is leading to so much tragedy, Equality Rights Group Chairman, Felix Alvarez, has stated today.

 

Mr Alvarez said: "We were pleased when, some time back, the Chief Minister spoke about lending support to Syrian refugees. Matters in the Mediterranean, meanwhile, have been going from bad to worse. 

 

"Who can stand idly by watching children, and women and men of all ages literally risking all to flee countries torn by war and atrocity, and ending up in their thousands losing their lives? These are genuinely desperate people requiring a genuinely open heart to respond. Gibraltarians have that heart.

 

"Gibraltar is a well-off society. We have the ability to afford extending a hand of help and refuge. Equality Rights Group urges the Government of Gibraltar, and indeed our community at large, to move generously to take in refugees and asylum seekers, albeit on a controlled and proportionate quota basis to fit our size and economy. 

 

"The important thing is for Government to act, and to act now to do our humanitarian bit to assist.”

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