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UN Chief: Low or Middle-Income Countries Host 84% of World Refugees

UN Chief: Low or Middle-Income Countries Host 84% of World Refugees
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Local Editor

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that 84 percent of the world's refugees are hosted by low-or middle-income countries.

UN Chief: Low or Middle-Income Countries Host 84% of World Refugees

Guterres' message was released on the occasion of World Refugee Day, 20 June 2017, in which it read:

The latest figures from the UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR] show that at least 65.6 million people - 1 of every 113 members of the human family - have been forcibly displaced within their own countries or across borders.

While Syria remains the world's largest source of refugees, South Sudan is the biggest and fastest growing new displacement emergency, with 1.4 million refugees and 1.9 million internally displaced, the vast majority of them under 18 - a further blow to the future prospects of the world's youngest nation.

Behind these vast numbers lie individual stories of hardship, separation and loss, of life-threatening journeys in search of safety, [and] of gargantuan struggles to rebuild lives in difficult circumstances. It is heartbreaking to see borders being closed, people perishing in transit, and refugees and migrants alike being shunned, in violation of human rights and international law. The human cost is profound: millions of jobs lost, millions of children thrust out of school, and lives haunted by trauma and intolerance.

Throughout history, communities living next to crisis zones, as well as those far from the frontlines, have welcomed the uprooted and given them shelter - and in return, refugees have given back. Today, 84 percent of the world's refugees are hosted by low- or middle-income countries. We cannot continue to allow a small number of countries - often the world's poorest - to shoulder this weight alone.

This is not about sharing a burden. It is about sharing a global responsibility, based not only the broad idea of our common humanity but also on the very specific obligations of international law.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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