Global Responsibility Sharing

The conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has resulted in one of the worst humanitarian and displacement crises in decades, forcing more than 4.8 million Syrians across borders and displacing an estimated 6.6 million internally. Countries in the region, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, continue to host the largest numbers of Syrian refugees. With no current opportunity for safe and sustainable return to the Syrian Arab Republic, the exhaustion of personal resources, and the deterioration of living conditions in host countries after five years of conflict, many Syrian refugees have moved further afield, particularly to Europe. In 2015, Syrians represented 49 per cent of the over 1 million people who risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean. Resources are also increasingly strained in host countries where the majority of refugees still remain.

In November 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General announced a progressive roadmap to address the continued pressures on host countries and the range of humanitarian concerns entailed by the onward movements of refugees. As part of this roadmap, and with a view to addressing the Syrian refugee crisis, the SecretaryGeneral requested that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees convene a ministerial-level meeting to garner increased support for refugees as well as host countries through concrete pledges for resettlement and other forms of admission of Syrian refugees. This event will feed into a High-Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants, which will be held in New York on 19 September 2016, and which is intended to secure global commitments to addressing humanitarian needs of refugees and migrants from a range of countries of origin.