UN General Assembly
2015

On that account, over the years, Malaysia has taken in numerous individuals fleeing war, starvation and persecution. We currently have hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants, and we took in more earlier this year, when there was a dire humanitarian situation in the Andaman Sea. I am pleased to announce today that, in order to help alleviate the current refugee crisis, Malaysia will do its share and open our doors to another 3,000 Syrian migrants over the next three years. New international solutions are needed to deal with the migration crises. The millions fleeing are people, and they are people like us. They should be of concern to us all. We must respect our common humanity. We must transcend the silos of race and faith. When we look at the images of the desperate migrants, who are the victims of extremists or whose lives are degraded by hunger and poverty, we must see them not as strangers, but as our brothers and sisters.