Roundup: UN holds high-level meeting to deal with refugee, migration crisis

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday convened a high-level meeting to outline eight guiding principles to improve preparedness as the world confronts the biggest refugee and migration crisis since World War II.

"We must step up our work to prevent and stop wars and persecution. But we know that conflicts will not disappear overnight," said Ban. "More people will flee crisis, and people will keep moving in search of better opportunities."

The meeting, held at the UN headquarters on the sidelines of the annual debate of the General Assembly, is for member states to discuss the challenges and responsibilities, as well as the opportunities, that large migrant and refugee movements bring.

"We must be better prepared," said the secretary-general.

Ban outlined eight guiding principles to improve preparedness, beginning with saving lives. "The preservation of life must guide all our efforts, from asylum policies to robust search-and-rescue mechanisms," he said.

Also vital are protection, non-discrimination, preparedness to better adjudicate claims, responsibility sharing in terms of boosting the number of refugee resettlement places, better cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination, managed migration to ensure safe and legal channels for refugees and migrants and anticipating future challenges, including the plight of those escaping areas progressively ravaged by climate change.

"Together, we must translate these principles into reality," Ban said.

Recalling the haunting photograph of a lifeless Syrian toddler lying on a Turkish beach, the secretary-general said such an image, while symbolizing deficiencies and failures, can also catalyze solutions.

"Let us make sure that the heartbreaking death of Aylan Kurdi -- and so many other nameless tragedies -- compel us to move forward together and see the long-term benefits of integrating refugees and migrants."

"Cooperation is central to where we have to go," Ban said. "Those who seek unilateral solutions sometimes rely on sovereignty. But the only way to exercise sovereignty effectively in the day and age in which we live is through cooperation in an interdependent world. If we don't take that course, then the winners will be those who seek to undermine society and the rule of society which we all claim to wish to uphold."

"In the context of migration, the winners will be smugglers, traffickers and unscrupulous employers. Those who lose will be the dispossessed, the hungry, the vulnerable, the defenseless and the children," he said.

Ban also underscored the principle of global responsibility, stating that "proximity doesn't determine responsibility." Endi