Exclusive-Compassion not barbed wire should greet migrants, Nobel winner Gurnah says

Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah who won the 2021 Noble Prize in Literature, poses for the media at his home in Kent, Britain, October 7, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

CANTERBURY, England (Reuters) -Europe should greet migrants with compassion rather than barbed wire and the British government is "rather nasty" about those who seek asylum, said Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

Gurnah, who explored the legacies of imperialism on uprooted individuals in his books, said he was so shocked when he was phoned by the Swedish Academy to tell him of the prize that he thought it was a cold caller.