UN General Assembly
2015

The current refugee crisis, however, is unprecedented in recent times. The term migration hardly captures the severity of the situation. This is an exodus. We have all seen the figures. This year alone, some 500,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe, and millions have fled to neighbouring countries. Here, I would like to pay tribute to Syria’s neighbours, who have quietly and resolutely given shelter to the great majority of the refugees. The conflict in Syria, with its complex roots in the larger conflicts in the region, has produced a scale of suffering that we all hoped never to see again. The long-term solution has to be to solve the conflict in Syria, and others like it, by political means.