Similarly, U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly for the last time as the U.S. president and UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon who held this position for the last 10 years will deliver his last speech as the UN Secretary-General.
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The US has agreed to take in 110,000 new refugees in the 2017 fiscal year, which begins on 1 October, compared with the 85,000 refugees it expects by the end of September.
Tuesday’s summit took place a day after the 193 United Nations member-states adopted a global plan to confront the current refugee crisis, which has left a record-breaking 65 million people displaced globally, including nine million due to the Syrian conflict. “To slam the door in the face of these families would betray our deepest values”.
Countries participating in the summit are expected to announce individual pledges that are in line with a U.S. goal of increasing humanitarian aid by $3 billion, doubling resettlement and providing access to jobs and education, said Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Before the summit, Obama planned to meet with some of the CEOs of the corporations that have pledged support for refugees.
But rights groups dismissed the agreement as falling far short of the needed global response.
A record-breaking 65 million people are on the move worldwide, including 21 million refugees fleeing the war in Syria and other conflicts. “Refugees, a lot of them women and children, are often fleeing war and terrorism”.
In an apparent swipe at USA presidential candidate Donald Trump, Obama said the refugee crisis was a “test of our common humanity, whether we give in to suspicion and fear and build walls”.
He never mentioned Donald Trump by name, but referenced the danger of building walls.
Confirming that dozens of countries had pledged to double the number of refugees resettled to 360,000 in 2016, Obama urged countries to “welcome the stranger in our midst”.
During the summit, the Berlin government pledged to continue welcoming those in search of refuge, despite a backlash from many voters in recent state elections against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party. “In a world that left the age of empire behind, we see Russian Federation attempting to recover lost glory through force”, Obama said.
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Only eight countries now host more than half the world’s refugees: Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya and Uganda.
