The proposed European Union immigration and asylum pact has taken an "extremely xenophobic discourse," Doudou Diene, the United Nations special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism and racial discrimination, has said.
The Senegal-born Diene, who also oversees UN actions against xenophobia and related intolerance, was quoted as saying that the proposed policy was in violation of "all civil rights," the official Senegalese News Agency (APS) reported Monday.
"The so-called shameful directive is the result of the identity crisis that is facing European political parties and which has pushed them to adopt a xenophobic discourse that criminalizes extra-European diversity," said the UN official in remarks that were also publicized by the Spanish media.
In his remarks, the international civil servant of Senegalese nationality welcomed what he described as "the unanimous rejection of this directive by Latin American countries, including members of Mercosur: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela."
"This is the right answer as it is marked by defending the dignity of millions of South Americans who have immigrated to Europe," said the Senegalese-born Diene, who praised the unity of purpose among Latin American states.
The United Nations rapporteur underscored that, judging from the new directive, Europe was in an "identity crisis" because "its political and intellectual elite are defending national identity against immigrants, against foreigners, against diversity, while the streets are multicultural, intercultural."
According to the UN official, "Europe has been so concentrated in the construction of its economic union that it has forgotten that its new identity, which is necessarily diverse, as is the current European and plural identity, is a permanent feature of its construction."
Moreover, the Senegalese explained that the ongoing "fight against terrorism has strengthened the crisis of European identity" because "the image of a terrorist is seen in the other person."
In addition, Diene also found the existence of political speeches denouncing diversity and the refusal to consider Turkey as an integral part of Europe as "most absurd."
This was more so at a time when the country "can be allowed to be European in terms of football or NATO," said the Senegalese national, adding that it is because "there are those who still think that Europe is Christian."
While acknowledging that racism exists everywhere in the world, Diene however argued that in Europe it is a form of "political expression" and only two countries, Britain and Denmark, could be regarded as "advanced in the rejection of xenophobia."
Source:Xinhua
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