Sipilä not fully happy with Europe´s refugee handling

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä underscored the need for finding out the root causes of refugee flows and expressed his dissatisfaction over the ways of handling the refugee crisis by Europe.

‘Instead of focusing only on "managing" refugee flows, we really need to understand why people are on the move. We have already talked about this a lot, but I’m not always sure whether the talk in the meeting rooms is connected with the reality on the ground,’ said the Prime Minister while speaking at the 17th Doha Forum in Qatar on Monday, said an official press release on Tuesday.

Sipilä said that he is not entirely satisfied with the way Europe is looking at the world’s refugee crisi ‘We must also remember that when talking about refugees, the issue is not about numbers, but about precious human lives and human rights,’ Sipilä stressed.

In his speech, Sipilä reminded the importance of mediation. Most refugee flows are a result of man-made conflicts. It is therefore logical that the most effective way of stemming refugee flows is to prevent conflicts and work for peace.

This year the Doha Forum concentrated on the themes of development, stability and refugees.

Mediation is also one of Finland's foreign policy priorities. In its mediation work, Finland underlines that women's participation is a crucial component in any peace process to reach sustainable peace.

In his speech, Sipilä said that the best guarantee for strengthening development and stability worldwide would be to reach the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030.

The Prime Minister also met the top leadership of Qatar during his visit.

He met the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Minister of State for Defence Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah.

The discussions with Qatar’s top leader, the Emir, clearly showed that there is a desire to strengthen trade and investment relations between the two countries. Qatar has expressed an interest in Finland’s knowhow in health care and education, for instance.