Putin calls refugee crisis "bitter great migration of peoples"

UNITED NATIONS, September 28. /TASS/. Russia is urging concerted action for the sake of social and economic restoration of the Middle East, which would make the question of setting up refugee camps redundant, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the opening of the general political debate at the 70th UN General Assembly session in New York.

"Within days Russia as the president of the UN Security Council will convene a ministerial level meeting for the analysis of problems in the Middle East. We are suggesting a discussion of prospects for agreeing a resolution to coordinate action by all those who confront Islamic State and other terrorist groups," Putin said. "Such coordination must be based on the principles of the UN Charter."

"We expect that the international community will be able to devise a comprehensive strategy of political coordination and socio-economic reconstruction of the Middle East," Putin said. "Then it will be no longer necessary to set up refugee camps."

"The flow of people forced to leave their homes has first swept the neighboring countries, refugees number hundreds of thousands. This is a new great, bitter migration of peoples," the Russian president said. "Refugees need compassion and support, however, the problem can be solved fundamentally only by restoring the statehood where it was destroyed, only by strengthening state institutions where they have been preserved or are recreated, by providing comprehensive military and economic assistance to a country that got into a difficult situation. And, of course, to those people who do not leave their homes despite all the trials," Putin added.