The EU must abandon its phobias regarding helping war-ravaged Syria, if it doesn’t want a new migration influx, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“If the world community, and mainly Europe, doesn’t want a new influx of migrants, it should think, get rid of some phobias, and just help the Syrian people, regardless of political bias,” Putin said at a press conference following his visit to Singapore.

Putin has repeatedly stated that the European Union should address immigration issues carefully and review its policies which have encouraged migration.

In earlier statements, Putin said there are millions of migrants in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey which are “potentially a huge burden” for Europe. This is why the international community should do everything to get these people back home.

The EU is still haunted by the worst refugee crisis since WWII, which struck the continent back in 2015. The majority of asylum seekers come from conflict-affected countries, including Syria.

In 2017, over 3 million residence permits were issued in the union, according to a recent Eurostat report. More than 223,000 of these permits were granted to Syrians.

“The main migration routes to Europe via the Mediterranean and Balkans follow the pattern of wars that the US and its NATO allies have waged, overtly and covertly, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, among other countries,” Finian Cunningham, a writer who has covered international affairs extensively, said. Cunningham believes the opening of these routes “draws in migrants” from many other countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

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