New approach needed to manage migrant crisis, May urges

Prime Minister Theresa May is set to criticise the West’s response to the migration crisis, at the UK summit in New York, calling for a new approach to tackling the crisis.

The event will see leaders from the UN General Assembly (UNGA) chairing a meeting on the large scale movement of refugees and migrants.

May is expected urge leaders to have an open debate about what more can be done to better address the problem and avoid undermining the benefits that controlled, legal and safe migration can bring to our economies, and ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches refugees and those who need it most.

Speaking ahead of UNGA, the Prime Minister said: “Across the world today, we are seeing unprecedented levels of population movement and we need to work together to find a better response, which focuses our humanitarian efforts on those refugees in desperate need of protection and maintains public confidence in the economic benefits of legal and controlled migration.

“This is an urgent matter – more people are displaced than at any point in modern history and it is vital that we provide ongoing support for those people most in need of protection. As the world’s second-largest bilateral humanitarian donor, the UK is already playing its part and we will step up our efforts with further financial assistance and concrete action in partnership with the countries most affected.

“But we cannot simply focus on treating the symptoms of this crisis, we need to address its root causes too. While we must continue our efforts to end conflict, stop persecution and the abuse of human rights, I believe we also need a new, more effective global approach to manage migration. This should be based around three principles which will better serve the interests of migrants, who are exposed to danger; the interests of the countries they are leaving, travelling through or seeking to reach; and, most importantly, the interests of refugees, for whom we all share a responsibility to help.”