Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) issued the following statement today from Aurelie Ponthieu, MSF humanitarian affairs advisor on displacement, after NATO announced its response to migration in the Aegean Sea:
"More than 300 men, women and children have drowned in the Aegean in their desperate attempts to reach Europe this year alone. In this context, NATO’s involvement in the ‘surveillance of illegal crossings’ is dangerously myopic. People will continue to risk their lives in search of safety and protection, no matter the obstacles that the EU—and now the leaders of the NATO alliance—put in their way. How many deaths will it take before Europe, Turkey, and others focus their energy on providing humanitarian solutions rather than deterrence measures that clearly miss the point?"
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