Kofi Annan Quotes

Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity

The way a government treats refugees is very instructive.

We can't deter people fleeing for their lives. They will come. The choice we have is how well we manage their arrival, and how humanely.

The message that "we can't take in everybody" is imperative. At the same time, the decision as to who has a right to asylum needs to be made in Brussels.

The Refugee Convention of 1951 was a major breakthrough, outlining the rights of those displaced across borders as well as the legal obligations of states to protect them.

We have a human rights interest. Then there is the immigration problem. The human-rights violations have caused people to take to boats and flood not only the United States, but other countries in the region, creating great instability.

We need a human presence at the border and a humane presence at the border.

A country that does not fulfill its tasks in protecting the external borders has to cope with the consequences.

Australia would play its role in taking displaced people from the Syrian conflict.

No human being is illegal.

I'll absolutely do safe zones in Syria for the people. I think that Europe has made a tremendous mistake by allowing these millions of people to go into Germany and various other countries. And all you have to do is take a look. It's a disaster what's happening over there.

We're a humane country. We got to make sure that we find the intelligence. We have do it [protecting our boundaries] in a humane way following the law.

The [Barack] Obama administration has pressured Mexico to keep them away from the Mexican border, so that they don't succeed in reaching the United States. Pretty much the same thing Europeans have done to Turks and Syrians.

My message to everyone: the next time you hear about migrant children near the border, just picture them as your own. Then think what you would want our government to do.

Immigration should be enforced in a proportional and humane manner.

I'm in total sympathy with Dick Smith's sentiments; I only wish there were grounds for saying we Australians would never tolerate such appalling treatment of refugees being carried out in our name.

Where asylum is used as a route to economic migration, it can cause deep resentment in the host community.

But last year there were 540,000 people, roughly, detained coming across the border illegally. Forty-five thousand of them came from countries other than Mexico, demonstrating the fact that Mexico itself now is a pathway into the United States for people all around the world, and we don't know what their intentions are.

States shall not expel or return a refugee … to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Immigration shall be encouraged

There are a lot of us that want to see limitations on refugee resettlement programs.

Refugees come to us seeking asylum, seeking freedom, justice and dignity - seeking a chance just to breathe. And people in our country are saying close the doors and don't let them in?

No migrant of any religion has a constitutional right to come to the United States.

Before we kill Schengen, we have to make Dublin work.

Enough of Sicily being the refugee camp of Europe. I will not stand by and do nothing while there are landings after landings of migrants.