Obama announced that 50 companies have committed more than $650 million “that are all created to help empower more than 6.3 million refugees across more than 20 countries”.
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Administration officials said they have enlisted six nations as partners in the summit – Jordan, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Canada and Ethiopia – and dozens more will announce pledges to accept more refugees.
Among Asian countries, China pledged a further $100 million for refugee aid on top of a $1 billion fund announced a year ago in support of the UN’s work.
Obama had issued a call to action to government agencies, other world leaders and private companies to join together to make a difference in the lives of refugees.
“If we were to turn refugees away simply due to their background or religion or, for example, because they are Muslim, then we would be reinforcing terrorist propaganda that nations such as my own are opposed to Islam”, Obama said.
President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea Tuesday for countries to fulfill a moral obligation to alleviate a global refugee crisis “of epic proportions”, despite a political backlash in the USA against absorbing those fleeing Middle East violence.
Obama will host a summit on the global refugee crisis on the margins of UNGA later Tuesday, in an effort to galvanise new global commitments to help the refugees.
“I believe refugees can make us stronger”, he said.
Down this alley, the Obama administration recently introduced a “Call to Action” initiative, asking US companies to contribute to solving the problems related to massive migration.
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.
“Instead of sharing responsibility, world leaders shirked it”.
Fifty countries have pledged to take in 360,000 refugees this year, doubling the number from 2015, US President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday.
The president is expected to address the global audience from NY sometime around 9:30 a.m. (EST).
This coming against the backdrop of Deputy President William Ruto criticising the worldwide community for failing to address the refugee crisis in the world. And every year, the US president responds as representative of the host country on behalf of the leaders. Fueled by conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, the number of refugees is now at 65.3 million and rising, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
He said that the adoption would mean that more children could now attend school, more workers could securely seek jobs overseas, instead of being at the mercy of criminal smugglers, and more people would have real choices about whether to move during conflicts, sustain peace and increase opportunities at home.
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The increasing number of asylum seekers from those war-torn nations has sparked political debate in Europe and the USA over where the refugees should be rehomed.
