UN schedules summit in March to resettle "millions of Syrian refugees"

PanARMENIAN.Net - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, November 20, announced plans for a summit in March on resettling millions of people who have fled Syria as he expressed concern at "misplaced suspicions about migrants and refugees," Reuters reports.

Some 4.2 million Syrians have escaped the country's nearly five-year civil war to neighboring Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Hundreds of thousands of those Syrians have streamed into Europe this year.

A Syrian government crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in early 2011 sparked the civil war and Islamic State militants used the chaos to seize territory in Syria and Iraq. The UN says some 250,000 people have been killed during the conflict.

Ban told the 193-member UN General Assembly on Friday that he was deeply concerned about "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," Ban said. "We must respond not by closing doors but by opening our hearts with unity, tolerance, and pluralism and compassion."

He said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees would convene a conference in March to win pledges from countries to resettle or help place those who have been displaced due to the Syria conflict.

"Millions of refugees who have lost everything to violence and oppression want to end those threats more than anyone. They can potentially be a major constituency in combating violent extremism," Ban said.