EU Member States Should Choose Own Migrant Policies, 'Avoid UN-Like System'

EU member states should choose migration policies of their own rather than trying to become another supranational body like the United Nations, a UKIP member of the European Parliament told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — James Carver stressed that this is one of the reasons why the United Kingdom should walk out of the European Union.

"What I think should happen is that 28 member states should be forming their own individual migration policies which fit in far better with the United Nations, than the European Union — which is quite frankly trying to compete with the United Nations — [to] become another supranational body," Carver said.

Carver also said that the way to tackle the current migration crisis should be defined in accordance with the international conventions, such as the 1951 Refugee Convention — a UN multilateral treaty defining who could be defined as a refugee.

Carver also warned against mixing up the definitions of economic migrants and refugees.

"The biggest tragedy is that the asylum and immigration I would say are completely meddled up. These are two completely different things – migration, economic migration is completely different to asylum," Carver said.

The European Union is grappling with a refugee crisis, with thousands of migrants attempting to cross into EU member-states.

European institutions will not allow altering the Schengen agreement to stop the influx of refugees, the UKIP lawmaker said.

"The European institutions now have the power here, so member states can scream and shout and say what they like. And [so can] leading politicians across the union, including foreign ministers and chancellors, but the fact of the matter is that the trump cards are now held by the European institutions," James Carver said.

According to Carver, the recent developments highlight that the United Kingdom would be better off outside the European Union.