The Daily Mail
Queen Rania of Jordan continued her quest to raise awareness about the plight of Syrian refugees today as she visited the Greek Island of Lesbos.
The 45-year-old Jordanian queen spent time chatting with female refugees before making a heartfelt speech about the current migrant crisis.
The mother-of-four swapped her normally glamorous attire for a more practical wardrobe for the visit, donning a low-key geometrical black blouse, black jeans and scuffed black boots.
Queen Rania was on the island at the beginning of Holy Week at the invitation of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Her visit to Lesbos comes just over a week after Pope Francis touched down here.
The Middle Eastern royal is said to have asked to visit Kara Tepe, a model camp where hundreds of refugees have been given support.
A frequent voice on the migrant situation, Rania today called for 'legal' paths into Europe for refugees, criticising the EU's controversial deal with Turkey which she said endangers lives.
Addressing the crowd at the camp, she said: 'The deep concern is that many of the refugees...will now start to seek more dangerous routes,' Queen Rania said in reference to the EU-Turkey deal agreed in March to stem the migration flow.
'It's absolutely crucial for us to look for legal alternatives and more safe and effective pathways to Europe and areas of safety,' she said on Lesbos, the focal point of Europe's greatest migration challenge since World War II.
Under the EU-Turkey deal which went into force on March 20, all migrants whose asylum claims are rejected will be sent back to Turkey.
More than 320 people have been expelled so far, most of them Pakistanis, in expulsions which aid agencies such as Human Rights Watch have described as 'abusive', raising questions about the fate of the deportees in Turkey.
After hearing the individual stories of those who'd escaped the Syrian civil war, Queen Rania posted on Twitter this afternoon: 'Listening to the stories from refugees, it’s difficult to decide which story is more harrowing than the other because each one is a tragedy'
Syrian refugees constitute ten percent of the population in Jordan, which counts a refugee camp as its fourth largest 'city'.
In comparison, wealthy Western countries have pledged fewer than 130,000 resettlement spots, and only around 67,100 people - a mere 1.39 percent of the refugees - have made it to their final destinations since 2013, British charity Oxfam said last month.
And last month's closure of borders along the Balkan migrant route has also sparked fears that more asylum-seekers will attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Italy.
Around 53,000 people, many fleeing the war in Syria, are now stranded in Greece, including some 46,000 who arrived before the deal took effect.
'This is an exceptional crisis and requires an exceptional response,' Queen Rania said, adding: 'Greece...can't be the last stop for these refugees.'
She also called for more international support to humanitarian agencies such as the International Rescue Committee and the UN refugee agency UNHCR, who have been instrumental in providing refugees and migrants in Greek camps with food, water and shelter.
'Just being here today made me realize how over-stretched and under-resourced they are,' she said.