UN to step up efforts to deal with refugee crisis

New York

The global compact would be accompanied by a UN-led campaign to combat the xenophobia and racism that have tainted discussions of the refugees and migrants, UN officials said at a briefing to release a report on the global migration. The UN estimates there are 20 million refugees worldwide and another 40 million people displaced inside their own countries. Of the refugees, 86 per cent live in developing countries, often near the countries they came from, it says. Added to those figures are 244 million migrants who live and work in countries where they were not born.

The campaign would attempt to counter an increasingly negative attitude and tone in debates over how to deal with the crisis, the UN said. “I am concerned at  the increasing trend of member states to erect fences and walls,” UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon said in the report. “Xenophobic and racist responses to refugees and migrants seem to be reaching new levels of stridency, frequency and public acceptance.” The proposals come ahead of a summit at the UN in September to address the global refugee crisis.

The UN-led campaign will promote such steps as more direct, personal contact between refugees, migrants and people in their host countries, said Karen AbuZayd, UN special adviser on the summit. Also, nations will be called upon to develop plans for including refugees and migrants in education, language and skills training and employment. The global compact would require nations to share responsibility in a variety of ways so that a few nations do not shoulder much of the burden while others do far less. It might include resettlement policies, financing arrangements, aid to host countries and technical assistance, Abu Zayd said.