Refugees not a security threat, EU says

BERLIN

EU term president Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has sharply criticized populist and right wing politicians for making scapegoats of refugees after Paris attacks.

"It's not the wave of refugees that carries terrorism in Europe, certainly not," Asselborn said at the 14th Berlin Security Conference on Wednesday.

He criticized politicians, who claimed only a few hours after the Paris attacks that some of the perpetrators might have infiltrated Europe among the asylum seekers who traveled through the Balkans.

"I would like to warn against mixing these two things," Asselborn said, stressing that asylum seekers were not the source of terrorism, but victims of the Daesh terror in Syria and Iraq.

"And not only ISIL [Daesh]. It's a shame that so many people, among them politicians, take advantage of the fear of possible new attacks after Paris, against people that seek shelter, look for a better future in Europe," he said.

Asselborn called on politicians to give up seeking short-term gains by an anti-refugee propaganda, and to observe central EU values of humanity and solidarity.

"Is refugee crisis a security problem for Europe? Answer is no," he claimed. "It is most important to make it quite clear to our citizens that migrants and refugees that run for their lives, do not desire anything more than to find dignity and security in Europe."

Refugees arriving Europe are not posing any more danger than millions of other travelers who come in and out Europe every year, he also argued.

Asselborn stressed that many perpetrators of recent violence in Europe were not refugees, but alienated, radicalized European-born young citizens.

A Syrian passport was found near one of the suicide bombers near the Stade de France, just north of Paris.

A French prosecutor said the fingerprints from the attacker matched those of someone who passed through Greece in October but added that the passport was yet to be authenticated.

U.K. newspaper The Guardian reported Monday that Serbian police had arrested a man carrying a Syrian passport with the same details as the one found near the body of one of the Paris suicide bombers.