UN General Assembly
2017

The dire situation of the 65 million people driven from their homes by conflict, economic hardship and climate change urgently requires a solution. How we, as an international community, address migration will define us for future generations. The forthcoming process towards global compacts for refugees and for safe, orderly and regular migration will give us the opportunity to establish new and comprehensive approaches to that current challenge. Those approaches must be grounded in humanitarian law and respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants, especially children. As host communities, we should not forget the positive contribution that migrants can make to growth and sustainable development. Iceland has received an ever-increasing number of refugees, in addition to providing generous assistance to United Nations agencies working in the countries that neighbour Syria. We will continue to do our part. Our forefathers, scarred by the Second World War and economic depression, had the foresight to set up the United Nations and the Bretton Woods Institutions.