Tackling Refugee Crisis: Nations agree on global framework

In a historic decision, the member states of the UN General Assembly yesterday agreed almost unanimously on a new international framework -- Global Compact on Refugees -- in order to transform the way the world responds to mass displacements and refugee crises.

The United States and Hungary were the only two countries that voted against the framework, while 181 countries voted in favour. The Dominican Republic, Eritrea and Libya abstained.

“Refugee crises call for a global sharing of responsibility, and the compact is a powerful expression of how we work together in today's fragmented world,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

“No country should be left alone to respond to a huge influx of refugees,” he said, according to a UNHCR statement.

The compact will be significant for Bangladesh, an already over-populated country that hosts over a million of Rohingyas and has been facing socio-economic and environmental challenges as such.

The framework, agreed as part of this year's annual resolution of the UNHCR, has been built on the existing international legal system for refugees, notably the 1951 Refugee Convention, and on the human rights and the humanitarian laws.