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More solidarity needed amid worsening global refugee crisis, UN chief warns

Xinhua, October 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged states on Monday to enhance cooperative measures seeking to address global displacement flows amid figures showing that some 65 million people are currently displaced across the world.

"The global displacement and refugee crisis has dramatically deteriorated since I spoke here two years ago," Ban remarked at the opening of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner for Refugees' Programme here.

"The numbers are staggering...but this is not a crisis of numbers. It is a crisis of solidarity. This is the message which I have been sending out to world leaders, many times, repeatedly," he added.

The secretary-general deplored the dire situation in Syria, a country whose protracted civil war has resulted in 13.5 million civilians, including six million children, in need of urgent assistance.

He also reminded that displacement crises in Yemen, Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic and South Sudan must not be forgotten.

Populations have too often borne the brunt of destructive warfare, with belligerents deliberately targeting local populations and civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and schools, Ban explained.

"The wilful and blatant disregard of international humanitarian law is creating large-scale suffering and long-term damage. We urgently need countries to transcend their national interests and come together in a forceful, global response," he added.

The UN head highlighted that the New York Declaration reached at the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on refugees and migrants last month could pave the way towards greater cooperation between states to tackle the unprecedented challenge created by refugee flows across the globe.

"The New York Declaration can make a real difference in the lives of refugees, but only if the leaders who adopted it make good on their promises," Ban said.

"We cannot congratulate ourselves on this outcome until it is carried out on the ground," he added. Endit