Francois Hollande Quotes

What kind of country are we, to participate in separating mothers and fathers from their children? Right now we have," and whatever the number is, "800,000 children 15 and under who've arrived in our country in the last two years, and where are their parents? We have not let them come in. And we can't deport them. Why send them back to the hellholes?

Well they're very, very genuine concerns at present as to the status of the 800 people who are to be sent by Australia to Malaysia. There's concern about the status of asylum seekers in Malaysia generally, but there's concern about the status of the 800 to be sent.

I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments; I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.

Most of the people who are coming to Australia by boat have passed through several countries on the way, and if they simply wanted asylum they could have claimed that in any of the countries through which they'd passed.

The greatest nation in the world should not have much to fear from a family, especially children, fleeing violence. More importantly, children fleeing violence ought to have nothing to fear from the greatest country in the world.

We will seek... to set up an automatic, obligatory system to redistribute asylum-seekers.

Operation Sovereign Borders has worked and delivered a human dividend that is compassionate and fair... our plan is simple. We won't change it. Labor will.

A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in? Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever, and if you are genuine, then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?

Safety concerns are reasonable. Banning refugees is certainly not.

It is only reasonable that our laws do not force our country to provide safe harbor to those individuals that are being sought out by their governments due to their terrorist ties.

If 30 Australians drowned in Sydney Harbour, it would be a national tragedy. But when 30 or more refugees drown off the Australian coast, it is a political question.

The current system for admission of refugees with family ties in the U.S. is fraught with inconsistencies and discriminatory practices.

I'll work to ensure that every single refugee who seeks asylum in the United States has a fair chance to tell his or her story. This is the least we can offer people fleeing persecution and devastation.

Migrants don't come to the United States because, as Ambassador Aponte argued in her press conference, of 'lies' told by smugglers that, once here, you can't get deported. They come because their countries have been destroyed by U.S. policy.

It shouldn't be the asylum seekers wondering which country they want go to. It should be Europe telling them where to be, be it Lithuania, Sweden, or wherever.

The best advice I have is, actually present yourself at a legal border crossing and make your case. Cross illegally and get arrested, and your children will be given to us. That's the simple fact, I'm afraid.

There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation.

Enough of Sicily being the refugee camp of Europe. I will not stand by and do nothing while there are landings after landings of migrants.

In 2015, the majority of refugees and migrants reached the European Union through Greece. Greek authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving at their shores. But they did not stay there. They were waved through to Central Europe at an increasing pace.

In Greece, refugees are being waved through to the heart of Europe. That is simply unacceptable in the long run. The European Union cannot act like a human trafficker.

European leaders cannot afford to be afraid. The refugee crisis is not one from which they can opt out. No magic wand will empower leaders to transport more than a million people back across the Aegean and the Bosphorus to Mosul and Aleppo, or across the Mediterranean to Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan.

Germany has got to deal with its global responsibilities in a mature way. There has been insufficient thought to immigration law, and we need to differentiate between different kinds of migrants. There are valid refugees whose lives are at risk at home.

Everyone who has ever asked for asylum in Slovakia was granted asylum if that person met the conditions. There was never any discrimination based on religion.

The Nauru files lifts the secrecy surrounding Australia's hidden detention regime for asylum seekers through vivid reporting and the words of the guards and officials on the island themselves.

It was less in pity than in anger that the world was moved by the photograph of little Alan Kurdi, that dead three-year-old Syrian refugee boy whose name we're all remembering now on the first anniversary of his drowning, along with his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother Rehanna.