British singer and actor Sting called world leaders “half men and cowards” on Saturday for their inability to solve the refugee crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already played down expectations of a breakthrough at hastily-arranged talks among EU leaders on Sunday on the migration dispute dividing Europe and threatening her own government.

Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said on Saturday he expects a chain reaction across the European Union if Germany closes its borders to refugees.

Migration policies in the U.S. have also been in the spotlight.

“Thank God for Greece because you have shown the way,” said Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, at an Amnesty International event in Athens.

“You have shown how to treat refugees when other people are building walls. When children are being taken from their mothers and put in cages, you are acting with compassion and generosity and commonsense,” he said.

“Because our so-called leaders, a sad parade of half-men, cowards, have not got the solutions … Once again Greece has shown us how to be civilized.”

Nearly a million refugees passed through and got support from Greece in 2015, as the country was dealing with its own major financial crisis.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday abandoned a policy of separating migrant children from their parents on the U.S.-Mexico border, after images of youngsters in cages sparked outrage at home and abroad.

Sting told Reuters the family separation policy was “brutal” and “barbaric”.

The former frontman for The Police was in Athens for two concerts as part of world tour.

The Paris concert venue where Islamist militants killed 90 people in November 2015 has enrolled rock star Sting for a concert to mark its reopening a year after the tragedy.

Sting, who headed up hit pop music band The Police before a long solo career, announced the news, saying on his website that the show would seek to honor those killed and the historic venue that is reopening after a year of renovation.

“In doing so we hope to respect the memory as well as the life affirming spirit of those who fell. We shall not forget them,” said the 65-year-old singer.

Proceeds from the Nov. 12 concert will go to two charities catering to victims of the attacks of Nov 13, 2015, with some of those who were hurt in the attack being invited back to see the Sting reopener.

The head of the firm that owns the Bataclan, a landmark for rock fans and partygoers of all ages, said the venue had been totally renovated, but kept largely as it was before.

“This is not a ceremony, it’s a concert,” Jerome Langlet, head of Lagardere Unlimited Live Entertainment, said.

“It’s the one and the same Bataclan. We chose to change it all without changing anything – to change it all so that nothing remains of the night of absolute horror, but to change nothing of the soul and history of the Bataclan,” he told reporters.

Roofing, tiling and seating were replaced but with material much like before, with better entrance hall lighting, he said.

In all, 130 people died a year ago when several groups of gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the perimeter of the Stade de France sports stadium, a string of Paris cafes and the Bataclan.

Responsibility for the killings was claimed by the Islamic State group, which has called on its followers to attack France, which is bombing IS bases in Iraq and Syria.