The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that the world waited far too long to respond to the refugee crisis sparked by the wars in Syria and elsewhere, though rich nations now appear to understand the scale of the problem.
“Unfortunately only when the poor enter the halls of the rich do the rich notice that the poor exist,” Guterres said in an interview on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
“Until we had this massive movement into Europe, there was no recognition in the developed world of how serious this crisis was,” he said. “If, in the past, we had more massive support to those countries in the developing world that have been receiving them and protecting them, this would not have happened.”
The sudden arrival in Europe of tens of thousands refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many abandoning refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon, has stirred sharp disagreement between EU members on how to “process” and accommodate them.
While governments such as Germany have proven more welcoming, eastern European countries have resisted plans for quotas to disperse refugees.
For years, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan have struggled to cope with millions of refugees from Syria’s 4.5-year civil war.
“The refugees are living worse and worse,” Guterres said. “They’re not allowed to work, the overwhelming majority of them live below the poverty line. It’s more and more difficult for them to have any hope in the future.”
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS