More Countries Must Provide Safe Pathways for Those Fleeing War, Poverty, Secretary-General Says as Headquarters Exhibition Opens on World Refugee Day

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the opening of the exhibition to honour World Refugee Day, in New York today:

This year’s observance of World Refugee Day finds more than 65 million people — or roughly 1 in every 113 members of the human family — uprooted from their homes.  This exhibition captures their plight.

You will see heartbreaking images of children and families under enormous duress.  But, you will also see their essential dignity shining through.  I thank the photographers, videographers, Shared Studios, UNHCR [Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] and all others who have made this exhibition possible.

As it happens, my own mind is filled with vivid images from my visit two days ago to one of the epicentres of the challenge — the town of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.  The coast of Turkey seemed just a stone’s throw away.  The waters looked calm and inviting.

But, not so long ago, that horizon was filled with flimsy, overcrowded boats struggling to make their way across choppy waters.  Every day, people fleeing war and persecution arrived by the thousands — men and women, children and elderly.  Many drowned.  Many others barely survived shipwrecks and hypothermia.  Some still had shrapnel wounds from the fighting they had been caught up in just days earlier.

The people of Greece and Lesvos have responded with compassion.  I met coast guard officers and lifeguards who brought distraught people to shore.  I talked with teenage navy scouts who are playing “big brother” to orphans.

I spoke with Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others at the Kara Tepe Open Hospitality Centre and sensed their gratitude for the solidarity of the local communities despite the difficulties.  But, I also saw, there and at the Moria “hotspot”, simmering frustration.  As one person said:  “It is the waiting that is killing everyone inside.”

“Don’t forget about us,” one woman said to me.  “We are powerless,” said a sign.  “We are people,” said another, held by a Yazidi woman from Iraq.

I spoke with a young Syrian woman eager to resume her studies in civil engineering.  Like so many refugees and migrants, she is ready to contribute her skills and passions to the betterment of our world.  And I saw art therapy drawings by traumatized children depicting tanks, beheadings and women in chains.  But, their pictures also showed their hopes for a future with houses and gardens to call their own.

The world has a political, moral and legal obligation to do more to bring that brighter day closer.  If tiny Lesvos can do so much, surely others must do far more.

This responsibility must be shared across Europe and across the world.  More countries need to resettle more people.  We need to crack down on smuggling, fight xenophobia and provide safe, legal and regular pathways.  And we need to better integrate refugees into society while addressing the root causes of forced displacement.

I know the situation is complex.  At the same time, in many ways, it is also very simple.  We need to help fellow human beings caught up in horrendous circumstances they had no role in creating and have no power to change.

We must uphold our common humanity.  It is there in all of us, waiting to be expressed.  Now is the time.