THE Dalai Lama has said refugees should return to their homes and help rebuild their countries because “Europe belongs to Europeans”.

The Buddhist spiritual leader from Tibet acknowledged Europe had a responsibility to help asylum seekers, but insisted they must also do their part.

Speaking at a conference in Malmo, Sweden, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner said: “Receive them, help them, educate them, but ultimately they should develop their own country.

“I think Europe belongs to the Europeans.”

The 83-year-old later explained Europe was “morally responsible” for helping a “refugee really facing danger against their life”.

His speech comes three days after Sweden’s far-right populist party, Sweden Democrats, made gains in the country’s general election.

The anti-immigration party came in a promising third, behind Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s Social Democrats and the opposition conservative Moderates in the Nordic nation, which in 2015 took in the highest number of asylum seekers per capita in Europe.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, when he was chosen to become the 14th reincarnation, but Tibetans rejected Chinese rule.

He made a 15-day journey across the Himalayas in a bid to reach India, where he remains in exile.

The Dalai Lama is in the middle of a Euoprean tour, and will tomorrow meet a dozen victims of alleged sexual abuse by Buddhist teachers in what is believed to be the first such gathering with Tibet’s spiritual leader.

The victims launched a petition earlier this week asking to meet him and share their experiences.

The meeting will be in The Netherlands where the Dalai Lama is to give two days of lectures in the southwestern port city of Rotterdam.

“We found refuge in Buddhism with an open mind and heart, until we were raped in its name,” the victims said in their petition, which has garnered nearly 1000 signatures.

The Dalai Lama’s office responded by saying he would talk to the victims during a “short audience” on Friday afternoon.

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama was saddened to learn of the sexual abuse suffered by students of Buddhist teachers,” an official in his office wrote.

The Dalai Lama “has consistently denounced such irresponsible and unethical behaviour,” the official wrote, adding: “Such misbehaviour was intolerable and must stop.”

However, if these warnings were ineffective, the Dalai Lama made it clear that “students would have no other recourse than to publicise such disgraceful conduct, criticising perpetrators by name.”

Victims will have a chance to hand him laureate written testimonies. He is also expected to discuss some thoughts on how to deal with the issue.

The Dalai Lama will be in the Netherlands for four days before heading to Germany.

Many of his supporters regard him in the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.