UN chief makes five-appeals for refugee protection

NEW YORK, June 20 (KUNA) -- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made on Tuesday five strong appeals to the international community that are necessary for the right of refugees to be again fully respected.
On World Refugee Day, the UN Chief held a press conference noting that the world is witnessing largest number of refugees ever.
Refugee protection is not a matter of solidarity or generosity, but an obligation under international law, Guterres told the press.
The world is witnessing closure of more borders, rejection of more refugees, namely in countries of the developed world, and reduction of the number of refugees hoping to resettle in richer countries, he said.
Therefore, Guterres made five strong appeals on refugee protection starting with calling member states to re-establish the integrity of the international protection for refugees regime, which means to have the right to manage their borders in a responsible and sensitive way.
First, border management should not be by refusing entry to those seeking asylum and deserving protection, he said.
Second, he called on members to recognize that there is no humanitarian solution for the refugee plight, the solution is political and it is related to the solution of the conflict that generate refugees in larger numbers.
As humanitarian support for refugees is still largely underfunded, and appeals made are funded at about 50 percent, he called on member states to fully fund their appeals.
He also said that the majority of the refugees live below the poverty line that many cannot bring their children to school, cannot guarantee adequate nutrition to their children, have not adequate health support, have no jobs and no hopes or perspective to have a dignified life.
Therefore, he said "it is absolutely crucial that humanitarian appeals are fully funded and that international solidarity is expressed in relation to refugees, not forgetting that 80 percent of the world's refugees live in the developing world." Fourth, he appealed to countries in the developed world to be able to express a much stronger solidarity to countries of first asylum in the global South; those that host 80 percent of the world's refugees, and sometimes with a dramatic impact on their economy, on their society, not to mention the impact on their security with the conflict next door.
The UN chief finally asked countries in the developed world to increase their resettlement quotas at least to the levels that we had two or three years ago, to be able to offer an effective responsibility-sharing with those that are hosting millions of refugees in the deep South. (end) mao.ma