Chinese envoy calls for integrated approach to tackling refugee crisis

The fundamental way out of the current refugee crisis is to seek peace, realize development and take an integrated approach to addressing the root causes of the issue, a Chinese diplomat said here Friday.

The international community is currently facing the largest refugee crisis since the Second World War with more than 60 million refugees and internally displaced people in different parts of the world, Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the UN, said at the 59th plenary meeting of the 70th session of the General Assembly.

"We need to step up efforts to realize peace and stability in the Middle East and other regions," he said, adding that "wars and conflicts are the major causes of refugees and migration."

In the face of a new round of terrorist threats, the leading role of the UN should be given full play. A united front against terrorism should be built and wide cooperation be conducted in areas of experience exchange, intelligence sharing, information verification and law enforcement, he said.

Moreover, the envoy called on the international community to help African countries achieve development.

"Development is the only way to provide sound life and decent jobs to the people of African countries and other developing countries, safeguard their fundamental rights, so the number of refugees and migrants can be reduced," he said.

Liu also highlighted the principle of "shared responsibilities" and the need to strengthen international cooperation on refugee and migration issues.

According to him, developing countries have made important contributions to the settlement of refugees by taking around 86 percent of the world's refugees.

As a state party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, China has always fulfilled its duties and actively contributed to the global protection of refugees, Liu said.

As for China's specific contributions, the representative said that "last September, President Xi Jinping announced at the UN summits a series of important initiatives aimed at achieving common development of all countries."

He added that the initiatives included "the establishment of a South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to support the implementation by developing countries of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, continued increase of investment in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) with the goal of reaching 12 billion U.S. dollars by 2030."

Other initiatives include exempting the debt of the outstanding intergovernmental interest-free loans due by the end of 2015 owed by the LDCs, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries.

Xi also put forth China's "Six 100s" initiative, under which China will make available to other developing countries in the next five years 100 poverty reduction programs, 100 agricultural cooperation projects, 100 trade promotion and aid programs, 100 environmental protection and climate change programs, 100 hospitals and clinics, and 100 schools and vocational training centers.

Moreover, Xi announced that China will set up a 10-year, 1-billion-U.S.-dollar China-UN peace and development fund, set up an 8,000-person standby peacekeeping contingent and provide the African Union military assistance worth 1 billion U.S. dollars in the coming five years to further help safeguard world peace and stability, Liu said.

On refugee protection, China has provided the Syrian people and Syrian refugees abroad with multiple forms of humanitarian assistance including cash and goods worth more than 230 million yuan (about 36 million dollars).

In June 2014, Xi announced humanitarian assistance of 100 million yuan (about 16 million dollars) to Syrian refugees in various countries, including Jordan and Lebanon. Endi