Obama calls on world leaders at UN to 'open our hearts' to refugees

Date:

9/20/2016

Time:

10:23:25

Source:

BBC News

Content:

US President Barack Obama has urged world leaders to "open our hearts" to refugees, in his final UN speech. He told the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the world would be more secure if help was offered to those fleeing conflict. The US leader also warned against the "crude populism" he said was spreading in the US and elsewhere. About 21.3 million refugees have been forced to flee their countries over conflict or persecution, the UN says. The presidents remarks come a day after a US and Russia-brokered ceasefire unravelled, partly due to a US-led air strike over the weekend that mistakenly killed Syrian soldiers. Tensions continued on Monday when a strike, which witnesses say came from the air, hit an aid convoy at Urum al-Kubra, destroying 18 of 31 UN lorries and killing about 20 civilians. The UN has since suspended all aid convoys to Syria in response. Both Russia and Syria have insisted their forces were not behind the strike. Mr Obama used his eighth and final UN address as president to call for a "course correction" to ensure that extremism and violence does not drive countries into a more divided world. "Together, now, we have to open our hearts and do more to help refugees who are desperate for a home," he said. The US president continued: "If we are honest, we know that no external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long. "Until basic questions are answered about how communities co-exist, the embers of extremism will continue to burn. Countless human beings will suffer." Though he made no direct mention of the US, Mr Obama said wealthy countries with the resources should do more to help. In what appeared to be a dig at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, he added: "The world is too small for us to simply be able to build a wall and prevent (extremism) from affecting our own societies." Hours earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concern over the conflict in Syria, saying there was "no military solution". "Gulfs of mistrust divide citizens from their leaders. Extremists push people into camps of us and them," Mr Ban said, taking the world stage for the last time as secretary general. "The Earth assails us with rising seas, record heat and extreme storms. And danger defines the days of many." More from the BBC

Orignial Link :

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37422491

crawlTime:

9/20/2016 11:26:04 AM