UN chief plans March summit on resettling refugees

NEW YORK

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday said the world body would convene a summit in March on resettling millions of displaced Syrians.

Speaking at a General Assembly meeting on the plight of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean basin, Ban said he asked the head of the UN refugee agency to plan a Resettlement Plus conference in March.

The summit will galvanize international pledges "to resettle or otherwise help place" millions of people who have been displaced as a result of the Syrian conflict.

Now in its fifth year, the war has claimed more than 250,000 lives and made the country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced persons.

Ban also said the World Humanitarian Summit in May will offer a chance to reshape the global humanitarian agenda on the crisis.

The summit in Istanbul "will address financing, including by the private sector, while addressing humanitarian challenges," he said.

Nearly 4 million Syrians are now refugees and at least 7.6 million have been internally displaced, according to UN figures.

Neighboring Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria, is now the largest refugee-hosting country in the world with more than 2 million Syrian refugees on its soil.

Ban also expressed concern that deadly attacks in Paris last week could provoke "misplaced suspicions about migrants and refugees, especially those who are Muslim".

"We must be on guard against such distortions and discrimination, which only play into the hands of terrorists trying to sow divisions and fear", he said. "We must respond not by closing doors but by opening our hearts with unity, tolerance, and pluralism and compassion. This will foster true security," he added.