OSCE PA 'Cannot Close its Eyes' on Migrant Crisis in Europe

Members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) will address the migrant crisis in Europe on Thursday, the assembly's president told Sputnik on Wednesday.

ULAN BATOR (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova – Ilkka Kanerva asserted that an organization of OSCE’s stature will send the signal that it is "not participating in European development" if it "doesn’t touch" a humanitarian crisis involving over half a million refugees who have arrived in the European Union in 2015.

"We are going to have a special debate on this issue tomorrow and we have to search for ways to go further," Kanerva said in an interview.

"We cannot close our eyes and we have to take our own responsibility," he stressed, pointing out the many security, economic and humanitarian issues surrounding the crisis.

In his opening remarks to OSCE PA lawmakers, Kanerva stressed the importance of "fair burden-sharing" over wall-building policies in Europe. European ministers agreed to relocate 40,000 refugees from Greece and Italy this week, with a final decision on an additional 120,000 refugees to be reached on October 8.

The three-day OSCE PA session opened in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator on Wednesday, bringing together lawmakers from OSCE participating states. Nearly 200 parliamentarians from 57 countries have gathered in the central Asian city for the Assembly's 2015 Autumn Meeting.