Sommaruga calls for joint action on migrants at UN

In her speech at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, Swiss president Simonetta Sommaruga warned that everyone would lose out if national interests impede a joint response to the Middle East refugee crisis.  “We can only face the important flow of migrants jointly,” she said. “If each of us only looks after its own interests, we all lose out in the end: The migrants lose out and the solidarity between states falls by the wayside.”  Pointing to the significant Syrian refugee burden shouldered by neigbouring countries like Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon Sommaruga said that “it is not possible for a few European countries to take in all the refugees”.  The Swiss president also flagged up some of the causes for the large scale migration of people around the world, including well-educated, young people from European countries.  “We have to acknowledge that we have not yet succeeded in achieving anything close to a fair global distribution of ...