'Enormous' gap between refugees’ needs, funds: Kerry

By Kasim Ileri

UNITED NATIONS

A new position as special representative to the UN Secretary General for internally displaced persons (IDP) needs to be established, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.

The post is needed for “the vast majority of people who are driven from their homes within their own countries”, he said during a General Assembly event on refugees and migrants.

Kerry made a distinction between international refugees and IDPs, for which the issue has become a “global crisis, in some places a catastrophe”, he said.

“As we meet 65 million people have been displaced from their home,” Kerry said, adding that 21 million of those people have crossed into another country as he urged the international community to do more to help refugees.

The gap between available funds for refugees and the number of refugees “remains enormous,” he added.

“We have to do our part to end wars, to fight violent extremism, to respect human rights and to support policies that humanely and effectively manage the flow of people who are on the move.”

Kerry welcomed a General Assembly decision in July to make the International Organization for Migration a part of the UN to help the millions who have been displaced by violence.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who also spoke at the same session, said the migration crisis had been "exacerbated" by "unprecedented" numbers of economic migrants.

She urged a change in the approach of European countries to the crisis. “Refugees should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach,” she said.

"We need to be clear that all countries have the right to control their borders and protect their citizens and be equally clear that countries have a duty to manage their borders, to reduce onward flows of illegal and uncontrolled migration," she added.