Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said migrants and refugees around the world were continuing to take dangerous routes towards safety and opportunity, France 24 reported.
The solution for their destination countries, Grandi told the opening of the United Nations Refugee Agency's main annual meeting, "cannot be to close the door".
He warned of "the dangerous lines of thinking emerging in some of the world's richest countries -- 'externalising' asylum beyond a country's borders -- violate international law, put the lives of the most vulnerable in jeopardy and constitute precedents which threaten asylum globally."
In particular, he highlighted the case of 27 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea for nearly 40 days on a Danish freighter before it was finally permitted to dock in Italy earlier this month.
"States failed to live up to their responsibilities. As a European, I find it shameful that it took more than one month to disembark just 27 people."
FA/PR
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