GENEVA (Sputnik) — The world should show more tolerance to migrants and establish an international mechanism of assistance, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration Peter Sutherland said Friday.
"We have to re-enforce the responsibility to refugees. We also have to have an international regime that provides assistance to other vulnerable migrants," Sutherland told reporters.
He added that the world should have a greater understanding of the positive contribution migrants could bring to their host countries.
The international community is suffering from the most significant migrant crisis since World War II. The number of migrants in the world significantly increased in 2015, mostly because of armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.
Hundreds of thousands refugees fled their crisis-torn countries of origin, however, many of whom have traveled to other states in an effort to find a better life in prosperous countries, mostly within the European Union.