According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, refugees are people forced to flee due to armed conflict or persecution, while migrants choose to move in search of a better life. More specifically, Barack Obama stated that: “Together, now, we have to open our hearts and do more to help refugees who are desperate for a home”.
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The US is a major contributor of humanitarian aid for countries that host large numbers of refugees – particularly Syria’s neighbors – and plans to increase the number of refugees it will take in to America from 85,000 in 2016 to 110,000 next year. “We look forward to working with states to put them into action”, said Grandi.
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.
For, it is not possible for Jordan, even if one forgets its meagre resources, to afford politically, economically and socially to house millions of Syrian refugees forever. The high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said it represented “a political commitment of unprecedented force and resonance” that would fill “a perennial gap in the worldwide refugee protection system – that of truly sharing responsibility for refugees”.
China, for example, pledged $300 million in new humanitarian aid over the next three years, and Canada announced it would increase humanitarian assistance by 10 percent this fiscal year. Noting the importance of fostering an environment of inclusion, as applicable, we are pleased that so many countries have made commitments to help facilitate these goals and recognize that, for purposes of implementation, refugee host countries will continue to require sustainable donor support.
That so many people should have to leave their countries is shocking.
Vetting efforts to screen refugees, he noted, “are not cheap”. Save the Children’s Senior Director of Humanitarian Public Policy & Advocacy Bernice Romero told IPS that the summit did succeed in focusing the world’s attention on the plight of refugees and displaced people around the world.
Refugee pledges, but what about migrants? She added that the development of a Global Compact for equitable responsibility sharing by 2018 is the first step to what could be a meaningful process and action plan.
“We can not close our eyes”, Byanyima told IPS.
Those new pledges that did emerge from the leaders’ summit will have to be followed up by the administration that succeeds Obama and for which refugees may be viewed as more of a security threat than a priority.
The commitments that were signed between the heads of governments include the protection of human rights and refugees while ensuring that all migrant children will receive education within a short period of their arrival.
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“For us, the question is how it will differ from the usual response”, Liebl said.
