Russia receives more refugees than EU with no fuss: Duma head

News | 03.10.2015 | 00:02

PressTV - A Russian official says Moscow has received, without complaining, twice as many refugees as the European Union nations have, amid the huge influx of refugees into Europe. Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia’s State Duma, or the lower house parliament, made the remarks during a meeting with Russian lawmakers on Friday. Naryshkin said Moscow had “without any fuss, without political moaning, and cries” accommodated some “1.1 million Ukrainian citizens, migrants, refugees” in comparison with EU nations, which have received about 550,000 refugees. The Russian official also said “the majority of the able-bodied population [from received migrants] works, all children study at schools, in general, everything is calm.” Europe is currently grappling with an unprecedented refugee crisis since World War II. The influx has caused diplomatic wrangling and rows among the European countries.  After months of negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement over the fate of the refugees, EU ministers recently adopted a resolution to distribute some 120,000 refugees among member states. The decision was not embraced by a number of European countries such as Hungary, which has imposed tough regulations in order to prevent the entry of refugees. The asylum seekers are currently entering Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary in an attempt to reach Western Europe. So far this year, nearly half a million people have undertaken the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, official figures show. Some 2,800 have died on the perilous journeys. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced  that it predicts that a total of 1.4 million refugees will be in Europe by the end of the next year. Many of those seeking refuge in European countries are Syrians, who have been threatened by a foreign-backed militancy since 2011.