GENEVA: United Nations aid agencies gave a cautious welcome on Friday to a migration deal reached by European Union leaders, while urging member states to share responsibility and help frontline countries led by Italy.
"We will welcome any outcome that leads to a more collaborative and harmonised approach to asylum, also one that has at its core and priority saving lives at sea," Charlie Yaxley of the UN refugee agency UNHCR told a Geneva briefing.
Leonard Doyle of the UN's International Organization for Migration said that "any solution needs to be a European solution".
"We are not talking about external processing centres, that is the key point .... These centres should be in Europe," he said, adding that disembarkation points should not be located in Libya due to insecurity and lawlessness.