Italy is in the front line in the
refugee crisis and has saved hundreds of thousands of lives in
the Mediterranean, 3,700 in the last five days alone, Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday at the UN's High-Level
Conference on Syrian refugees.
Addressing the one-day conference in Geneva, Gentiloni
illustrated Italy's initiative of humanitarian corridors, "which
can be an initiative that can be emulated by other countries".
As for Syrian refugees in particular, Gentiloni said Italy
had agreed to take 1,500 more people by the end of 2017 within
the framework of the ongoing EU-funded reception programme, as
well as facilitating visas for families to reunite.
The EU has agreed a 'one in, one out' programme with Turkey
to return new Syrian arrivals from Greece, with Ankara taking
back one economic migrant for every refugee whose asylum claim
is recognised.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Geneva conference
more needs to be done to provide resettlement and other answers
for their plight.
"We are here to address the biggest refugee and
displacement crisis of our time...This demands an exponential
increase in global solidarity," he told the gathering at the
Palais des Nations in Geneva, attended by the representatives of
92 countries together with governmental and nongovernmental
organizations.
Some 4.8 million Syrians have been forced to flee across
borders by five years of war, while another 6.6 million are
internally displaced.
While talks are underway to find lasting peace, the UN
chief said more countries need to step up and provide solutions
for Syrian refugees.
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