In his final speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Obama says the kind of thinking that favors “the strong man” over true democracy is wrong.
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As they await action from world leaders in NY, a group of volunteers in London laid out a “life jacket graveyard” Monday to draw attention to the plight of thousands of migrants who’ve lost their lives attempting hazardous boat crossings in the Mediterranean.
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. Last week, South Sudan joined the ranks of Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia – countries with over 1 million of their citizens living as refugees overseas.
As the world faces the largest refugee crisis since World War II, an astonishing 3.7 million refugee children around the globe are now out of school.
The 92-year-old leader said that while his country is “the innocent victim of spiteful sanctions”, it can not proceed with the implementation of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
“In a world that left the age of empire behind, we see Russian Federation attempting to recover lost glory through force”, Mr Obama said.
Trump has controversially proposed building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out undocumented migrants.
Leaders also called for a more orderly and equitable system to manage refugee flows – acknowledging the burden is shouldered disproportionally by certain regions. Germany, for instance, took in 1 million in 2015 alone.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has accused the Syrian government of killing the most civilians during the country s five-year war and said “powerful patrons that keep feeding the war machine also have blood on their hands”.
“Countless human beings will suffer”, he said. “Jordan’s burden is skyrocketing”.
The president called for a “course correction” for globalisation to ensure nations don’t retreat into a more sharply divided world, while pushing back against an isolationist approach gaining popularity in many countries. “The humanitarians delivering life-saving aid were heroes”.
“We’re making sure that the least of these, the most vulnerable among us, also have hope, also have opportunity”, he said.
Private companies were stepping up, too.
And he accused South Sudan’s feuding leaders of betraying their people.
Last week, the White House announced that the USA would resettle 110,000 refugees in the coming year, a 30 percent increase over the 85,000 allowed in this year.
In 36 seconds on Friday, Donald Trump tried to vanquish a lie he’s perpetrated for several years, namely that Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States and, by extension, was never legitimately president.
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. The audience received him warmly that day, in contrast with the silent response that Bush often got at the United Nations gathering. “There are some credibility issues”.
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He said the world will be more secure if nations are prepared to help those in need and urged countries to follow through on their pledges “even when the politics are hard”.
