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59th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly 70th Session
Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft opened the meeting, in which over 40 speakers participated, by saying that the more than 12 million displaced Syrians deserved the world’s attention, as did the country’s neighbours — Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Most of those refugees were fleeing conflict, violence, persecution and some had become victims for a second time due to migrant smuggling and human trafficking.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also drew attention to the plight of Syria’s neighbours, who were hosting 4.3 million desperate people. He applauded their efforts but underscored that such few countries could not continue to shoulder the world’s responsibility. “We need a new approach to manage global mobility, built on equitable responsibility sharing,” he said, calling for more resources and political will to address the root causes of the Syrian crisis and regional tensions, such as poor governance and human rights violations.
In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, the Secretary-General said he was deeply concerned by “misplaced suspicions” about migrants and refugees, especially those who were Muslim. “We must respond not by closing doors but by opening our hearts with unity, tolerance, pluralism and compassion,” he said, adding that rights to asylum and non-refoulement must be upheld.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres said the number of refugees crossing the Mediterranean into Europe in 2015 stood at almost 850,000 and was growing rapidly. “The international humanitarian response system does not have the capacity to meet even the most basic needs of all the people we are supposed to help, and unless something changes dramatically in the way we finance humanitarian responses, more lives will be lost and more desperate people will see no choice but to move on in search of safety and a minimum of human dignity,” he said. Establishing a much closer link between humanitarian assistance and development was key to bringing about that change.
According to the High Commissioner, the humanitarian crisis had created huge structural problems for host countries most of which were middle-income nations and therefore excluded from many instruments of development cooperation. He called for a fundamental review of strategies. The chaotic movement of people from Greece through the Western Balkans and northwards was also largely a result of a lack of a united and comprehensive European response to the crisis.
Representatives of the neighbouring countries bearing the brunt of the Syrian refugee crisis said that it was placing a huge strain on their economies and jeopardizing their internal security.
Lebanon’s representative said that 1.2 million Syrian refugees were registered in his country and that accounted for more than 25 per cent of its population, making it the nation with the highest concentration of refugees per capita worldwide. The high number of refugees had stretched the country’s public services beyond capacity and poverty had increased by about 60 per cent. Fearing the destabilizing impact of the protracted Syrian conflict on its fragile institutions, as well as the radicalization of segments of the refugee population, Lebanon called on the World Bank and other international financial institutions to give it and other neighbouring countries adequate development aid to meet their new needs.
Jordan, which also had opened its doors to refugees and would continue to do so, was spending 35 per cent — or more than one-quarter — of its national budget to aid refugees, according to its representative. Member States must step in financially and devise a political solution that countered terrorism, enabled stability and security in Syria, as well as preserved the country’s independence and territorial integrity, he said.
Turkey’s representative said his country was hosting 2.5 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees, the highest number in the world. Every day an average of 110 babies were born in its in-protection centres alone. The country would continue to aid people in need, but it and other forefront countries could no longer cope with the crisis alone.
However, Syria’s representative questioned the way Turkey was handling Syrian refugees. He also said that Turkish Government was facilitating the sale of petroleum by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Sham (ISIL/ISIS) and was turning a blind eye to Turkish mafia forging Syrian passports. He added that refugees were a global phenomenon, necessitating an objective approach from the international community to find solutions instead of pronouncements against individual countries. Only 20 per cent of those migrating from the Middle East to Europe through Turkey were Syrians, he said, adding that the rest were Asians or Africans, some of whom had forged Syrian passports.
The fact that not all refugees in the Mediterranean basin were from Syria was also highlighted by Germany’s representative, who said that Europe should strengthen its cooperation with Africa, as migration was the shared responsibility of countries of origin, transit and destination.
Greece’s representative, whose country was also at the fore-front of the Mediterranean refugee crisis given its location, said that since January, more than 600,000 people had crossed its borders with Turkey. Apart from Syrians, the refuges were from Afghanistan and Iraq. He added that no one should have to flee because the situation in their country was so untenable that it was impossible to live there in dignity. It was timely to consider a generous resettlement scheme, whereby numerous countries from several regions participated in a spirit of shared responsibility.
Egypt’s representative said that since March 2011, more than 300,000 Syrians had found their way into his country, with about 130,000 officially registered as refugees with UNHCR. Unlike other countries, Egypt had no refugee camps, and Syrians lived within host communities.
The representative of the European Union said the body’s membership was mobilizing all efforts to respond to the crisis, first and foremost, by saving the lives of thousands of people at sea every week. However, regular channels for migration and mobility could only be advanced in parallel to effective measures to stem migration flows.
The handling of the refugee crisis in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks was highlighted by some delegations with Pakistan’s representative saying that after the terrorist attacks in Paris, fear was being fanned to spread hate and Islamophobia. Some nations had blatantly declared they would not accept Muslim refugees, but “compassion has no religion”.
The United States representative said that the recent terrorist attacks had necessitated proper border screening, however, terrorist threats should galvanize the international community into finding solutions while maintaining compassion. The United States was intent on safeguarding people from terrorists while also providing vulnerable people with a safe haven. Anti-immigrant sentiment only fuelled further violence.
The Permanent Observer for the International Organization for Migration welcomed the call from delegates for a comprehensive, durable response to migration challenges and long-term strategies to help take migrants out of the hands of smugglers. The inclusion of migration-related targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development broke new ground for more effective cooperation between migration and development, and created the necessary space for migrants to be agents of development and socioeconomic exchange between host and origin countries.
Also speaking were the representatives of the Republic of Korea, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Afghanistan, China, Slovakia, France, Mexico, Italy, Israel, United Kingdom, Kenya, Kuwait, Malta, Tunisia, Cyprus, Australia, Croatia, Estonia, Austria, Qatar, Libya, Switzerland, Japan, Belgium, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway and the United Republic of Tanzania.
The General Assembly will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 23 November to conclude its debate on the Mediterranean refugee and migrant crisis as well as to discuss the question of Palestine.
