Refugee crisis will feature at G20 summit: Turkey
Opposition promises to increase Syrian refugees to Canada post-election
AFP
The unprecedented migrant outflow from the Middle East and North Africa will feature high on the agenda at a summit of the worlds top 20 economies in November, a Turkish minister said yesterday, reports AFP from Ankara.
The refugee issue is more about geopolitical risks and the humanitarian matters caused by them, Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz said after a two-day conference in Ankara of G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs.
It will definitely be dealt with at the leaders level politically, he said. Turkey, the G20s president this year, will host the summit in Antalya on November 15-16.
Europe is facing an unprecedent influx of people seeking a haven, many of them from war-torn Syria.
The crisis has split the 28-nation European Union (EU). Germany is leading calls to take in more refugees while newer members led by Hungary are opposing plans for mandatory quotas.
Yilmaz said resolving the problem would eventually have a positive impact on global growth and employment. Economy and politics are closely related, he said.
Turkey is hosting some 1.8 million refugees from the Syrian crisis and has repeatedly accused Europe of failing to pull its weight.
The lifeless body of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed ashore in the Turkish southwest holiday resort of Bodrum this week triggered grief around the world.
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde said her organisation would help as much as it could.
I think it is everybodys concern and everybodys business and it cannot be left to just one country because it happens to be nearby, she said. It requires a coordinated approach and probably an innovative solution as well.
Another report adds from Canada: As the Syrian refugee crisis became a major campaign issue this week, the Canadian opposition party New Democrats promised yesterday to welcome Syrian refugees to Canada if it wins the upcoming legislative elections.
The announcement follows intense media coverage of the death of a Syrian toddler who drowned as his family fled the war-torn country and a refugee crisis shaking Europe, which has put migration policy front and center in the October 19 elections.
The New Democrats say they are asking the current Conservative government to accept 46,000 refugees through 2019 -- 10,000 this year and 9,000 each of the next four years.
Their plan also calls for removing bureaucratic red tape to expedite resettling of refugees and appointing a dedicated Syrian refugee coordinator to oversee efforts.
Let us move forward with concrete measures focused on saving lives now and a stable plan for helping in the years to come, New Democrat foreign affairs leader Paul Dewar said in announcing the migration plan.
The Conservative government has said it will accept an additional 10,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq, combined, per year over the next three years.
The Liberal party, the other major opposition party, has said the government should immediately accept 25,000 Syrian refugees.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative party, has called for a several-fold approach that would welcome migrants but also step up military intervention in Syria and Iraq.
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