Countries also boosted financial contributions to United Nations appeals and worldwide humanitarian organizations by about US$4.5 billion over 2015 levels. He called for the world to impose “consequences” on North Korea for its latest nuclear test and, in less direct terms, for China to abide by a recent United Nations tribunal ruling against its territorial designs in the South China Sea. Millions of Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations.
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Now in its sixth year with over 300,000 dead, the war in Syria is dominating this year’s gathering of world leaders.
Over 20 million of them are refugees, the vast majority of whom are now living in just 10 countries.
“It’s a test of our global system where all nations ought to share in the responsibility”, Obama said.
Obama warned that there are deep fault lines, however, in the global order causing the massive refugee crisis, economic disruptions and insecurity.
Obama emphasized the need not to demonize refugees, implicitly hitting back against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s proposals to ban Muslim immigrants (including refugees) from entering the USA and to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
The 85,000 figure included 10,000 Syrian refugees, a figure advocacy groups had criticized as inadequate given the wealth of the USA and the fact that other countries, such as Canada and Germany, were welcoming far greater numbers of Syrians fleeing the civil war there. “It’s an ugly lie that must be rejected”, the president said. His core campaign promise is to build a wall on the southern border of the United States to stop undocumented immigrants from entering from Mexico.
The co-hosts for the Leaders’ Summit included the U.N. General Secretary, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico and Sweden.
Six of the world’s richest countries – the United States, China, Japan, Britain, Germany and France – hosted only 1.8 million refugees previous year, just 7 per cent of the world total, according to research by the British charity Oxfam.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose country has seen 2.5 million Syrian refugees pass through since 2011 and is now hosting 1.5 million, stressed the need to work on a macro level in order to make progress on a micro level.
It said the Syrian people possessed the right to self-determination and “do not need Ban’s advice”. Sweden has already offered $625 million in humanitarian aid this year, he said.
Private companies were stepping up, too. Traditionally, the US holds the second speaking slot of the debate, but Obama arrived late to the hall and the president of the General Assembly skipped over him to the next speaker, Chadian President Idriss Deby.
The administration’s target for fiscal year 2017 is 110,000 refugees, up from the 85,000 goal in 2016 and 70,000 in 2015.
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These increases are welcomed by refugee advocates, but the numbers represent only a drop in the bucket compared to what many other smaller countries are grappling with. “If not us, who can do it?” “We must finally get ahead in tackling this crisis”, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
