UN's Ban urges countries to resettle Syrian refugees over next three years

PanARMENIAN.Net - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on all countries on Wednesday, March 30 to accept nearly half a million Syrian refugees for resettlement over the next three years, Reuters reports.

Ban, kicking off a ministerial conference hosted by the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva, said: "This demands an exponential increase in global solidarity."

The United Nations is aiming to re-settle some 480,000 refugees, about 10 percent of those now in neighboring countries, by the end of 2018, but has conceded it needs to overcome widespread fear and political wrangling.

Ban urged countries to pledge new and additional pathways for admitting the refugees, such as resettlement or humanitarian admission, family reunions, as well as labor and study opportunities.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the refugees were facing increasing obstacles to find safety.

"We must find a way to manage this crisis in a more humane, equitable and organized manner. It is only possible if the international community is united and in agreement on how to move forward," Grandi said.

The five-year conflict has killed at least 250,000 people and driven nearly 5 million refugees abroad, mostly to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Ban, referring to UN-led efforts to end the war, which resume in Geneva in April, said: "We have a cessation of hostilities, by and large holding for over a month, but the parties must consolidate and expand it into a ceasefire, and ultimately to a political solution through dialogue."