UNITED NATIONS – The UN General Assembly on Monday adopted by a widemajority a Global Compact on Refugees aimed at improving efforts to managelarge refugee movements — but without the support of the United States andHungary.
The refugee pact, which did not provoke the controversy unleashed over asimilar pact on migration, was approved by 181 countries.
Only two voted no — the US and Hungary. Three others abstained — theDominican Republic, Eritrea and Libya.
Much like the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration — therefugee pact is not legally binding.
The two global agreements stem from the so-called New York Declarationadopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly in September 2016, with thegoal of better handling migrant and refugee flows worldwide.
The compact — written under the auspices of the Geneva-based UN refugeeagency (UNHCR) — hopes to ensure an adequate international response tolarge-scale refugee movements and extended displacement of refugees.
General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa told AFP the pact wouldhelp “strengthen the assistance to and protection of the 25 millionrefugees globally” and was based on burden — and responsibility-sharing.
“Refugee-hosting countries continue to show extraordinary levels ofgenerosity and commitment to refugee protection,” said Espinosa, who isfrom Ecuador.
“It s a known fact that low and middle-income countries host over 85percent of all refugees. I believe that we must support the communities andstates that host refugees.”
In voting no, Hungary said no new agreement was needed. The US saidrecently that it backed most of the refugee pact, but not the part aimed atlimiting detentions of asylum seekers.
Ahead of Monday s vote, two countries facing massive population flightaddressed the assembly.
Syria said the debate should not be politicized and asked the UNHCR to domore to help Syrian refugees return to their war-wracked country.
Crisis-hit Venezuela, which has seen massive flight as its economicquagmire has deepened, urged the assembly to ensure that the new pact didnot become a way for other countries to intervene in internal matters.
The document has four key objectives: ease pressure on refugee-hostingnations; improve refugee self-reliance; expand access to third countriesfor refugees via resettlement; and, support conditions for refugees to gohome.
The compact is meant to set up a framework; national and regional solutionsare supported, and it discusses financing and possible partnerships, aswell as data sharing among nations.
It also includes systems to monitor progress, including a Global RefugeeForum held at ministerial level every four years.
Unlike the talks on the migration pact, the United States remained in thenegotiations for the refugee pact.
The final text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Legal Migrationwas agreed on in July, and it is to be formally ratified by the GeneralAssembly on Wednesday.
Since July, a number of countries have either quit the pact or expressedserious reservations, including Hungary, Australia, Israel, Poland,Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia andItaly.
In Belgium, the migration pact sparked the collapse of the country scoalition government.
About 165 countries reaffirmed their commitment to the migration pactearlier this month in Morocco. – APP/AFP