Soros to invest $500 million to help refugees and migrants

Also today, in his remarks at the opening session, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi highlighted that the Summit is an extraordinary opportunity to have real impact for refugees.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon congratulated member states saying the summit represents a breakthrough their our collective efforts address the challenges of human mobility. “The declaration does not include any new, substantive commitments for refugees”.

The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants is a multi-faceted pledge by the UN’s 193 member states to create by 2018 a universal document with guidelines for the treatment of refugees and migrants and more equitable sharing of the burden of absorbing itinerant populations.

Noting that much of this displacement has neither been voluntary nor orderly, the prime minister said the people have been fleeing from desperate conditions of conflict, war or poverty. The New York Declaration on Migrants and Refugees is said to seek regulated responses to refugee situations and provide better education for the children – who constitute to more than half of the refugees globally.

As called for in the Declaration, the Secretary-General also launched a new campaign called “Together ” Respect, Safety and Dignity for All” to respond to rising xenophobia and turn fear into hope”.

The secretar-general and United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, urged states to implement commitments in the declaration, which the former said could allow more children to go to school and more workers to seek jobs overseas.

Addressing world leaders, May called for a greater distinction between refugees and people trying to enter a country for economic reasons, reported the BBC.

The U.S. and a number of other countries also objected to language in the original draft that said children should never be detained, so the agreement now says children should seldom, if ever, be detained.

Obama’s speech is always a focal point of the annual U.N. General Assembly, but his address Tuesday marks Obama’s swan song on the global stage.

During both the Plenary and Round Tables, Eliasson said States have emphasized the centrality of human rights for migrants and refugees, and reaffirmed their global obligations.

Following Monday’s high-level United Nations summit, President Barack Obama will host Tuesday the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees in a bid to tackle the ongoing refugee crisis.

President Obama was to push world leaders to do more to meet the needs of the world’s swelling throngs of refugees early on Wednesday (AEST), telling the United Nations that the entire world has a responsibility to help families displaced by war and persecution.

The Obama administration has emphasized that a half-dozen other countries including Germany and Jordan are co-hosting the refugee summit, but it’s largely been a US -driven endeavor.