United States President Barack Obama has called for a second summit on the subject on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Obama stepped into his role eight years ago with sky-high expectations.
Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the president was cognizant of the fact that bright spots such as economic growth and climate change cooperation are offset by the “great deal of unease” in the world, including Syria’s civil war and concerns about Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine.
The mayors also released their op-ed to coincide with the meeting of the United Nations in NY this week, and directly called on those in attendance to provide “an effective response to a growing humanitarian crisis”.
He cited diplomatic achievements on Iran and global warming and outreach to former U.S adversaries Cuba and Myanmar as illustrative of the approach Obama hoped would continue after he leaves office.
“You hear all around the world the United Nations hasn’t handled the refugee crisis”.
This comes a day after the ceasefire between the US and Russia in Syria ended, after a Syrian or Russian aircraft attacked an aid convoy near Aleppo.
The 85,000 figure included 10,000 Syrian refugees, a figure advocacy groups had criticized as inadequate given the wealth of the US and the fact that other countries, such as Canada and Germany, were welcoming far greater numbers of Syrians fleeing the civil war there. In addition to his speech, Obama on Tuesday planned to host a summit on refugees.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose report on refugees and migrants laid the basis for the summit document, said he was aware of the criticism from non-governmental groups.
According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, there are around 21.3 million refugees, 3.2 million asylum seekers and 40.8 million migrants in the world at present.
Advertisement
Richard, assistant secretary at the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, said Friday that Tuesday’s summit will focus on three key areas – increasing aid to United Nations and other humanitarian agencies by at least 30 percent; doubling resettlement; and improving access to education for almost one million youths and improving employment opportunities for those displaced.
