They did so against a backdrop of mounting bloodshed and a failing cease-fire in Syria, escalating attacks around the world by Islamic extremists, and millions of people fleeing fighting and poverty.
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Now in its sixth year, the war in Syria has driven almost 9 million people from their homes while an additional 4 million have fled to neighbouring countries or are making the perilous journey to Europe.
The summit’s final report gives the worldwide community another two years to reach a “global compact” on how to share the burden.
The heads of state meeting in NY this week have a responsibility to prove that they take these matters seriously, and reject the politics of prejudice and populism that are proving all too resonant on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Soros said he would work with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Rescue Committee, to decide how best to invest the money.
Why wait another two years? “If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you”. “Why do we need such a circuitous route to get there?”
While the compacts will be developed over the next two years through a process that is still unclear, UNHCR is expected to start implementing a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework by the end of the year. “We’re facing a historic crisis and the response is not historic”, Bolopion said on the sidelines of the meeting.
And he also addressed the crisis’ relationship with the larger political problems brewing in Europe. Last week, South Sudan joined the ranks of Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia – countries with over 1 million of their citizens living as refugees overseas.
Advocacy groups anxious that the New York Declaration on Migrants and Refugees – an outcome document which contains no concrete commitments and is not legally binding – falls short of what is needed, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, himself a refugee during the Korean War, hailed it as historic.”Today’s summit represents a breakthrough in our collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility”, Ban said. “It is shameful the victims of abominable crimes should be made to suffer further by our failures to give them protection”.
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”.
Perhaps nowhere are they more prevalent than in the so-called “global south” – the developing countries of the southern hemisphere.
Jewish billionaire George Soros has pledged to invest up to $500 million to help refugees and migrants around the world.
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Both Ban and Obama were making their final speeches at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.
