Up to 8,000 refugees and migrants have died trying to enter the European Union since 1993, an international refugee advocacy group has claimed.
In a statement to mark World Refugee Day, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) said indiscriminate and inhumane border controls are forcing people to take even greater risks to flee extreme poverty, persecution and war.
The JRS said governments are investing millions to keep undocumented migrants out and some states like India, US and Spain are even building physical barriers to impede the arrival of migrants.
"But nothing has been done to provide refugees with alternatives to using unscrupulous traffickers and smugglers to reach safety," it said.
Fr Lluis Magrina
JRS international director Fr Lluís Magriñà said: "Very often states do not distinguish between those posing security threat, migrants and those in need of international protection."
"There is a serious imbalance between border management and international human rights obligations to assist to those in need."
The JRS called on governments to afford refugees access to and protection within their territories.
It said: "The richer industrialised states need to provide technical and financial resources to poorer nations hosting refugees, and to resettle much greater numbers of vulnerable refugees unable to find protection elsewhere."
An award ceremony to mark the fifth World Refugee Day takes place in Dublin today.
The awards recognise the positive contribution asylum seekers and refugees make to the communities they live in as well as recognising people who show friendship and solidarity to immigrants.
Dublin City Council said the scheme promotes the importance of integration and diversity in communities.
"Ireland is truly becoming an intercultural nation and these Awards allow us to applaud the great work done by key individuals in the name of better integration of cultures in our country," said Ciaran Mahony of the Council's Intercultural Relations Unit.
The World Refugee Day Awards were founded by the African Refugee Network with support from Dublin City Council, Integrating Ireland, Ireland Embracing Cultural Diversity, the National Consultative Committee on Racism & Interculturalism, the Reception & Integration Agency, Sport Against Racism in Ireland and UNHCR.
Additional reporting by PA
