Global aid summit must not focus on refugee crisis alone

UNITED NATIONS: The refugee crisis triggered by conflict in the Middle East should not monopolise the first World Humanitarian Summit, which needs to find solutions to broader humanitarian problems, a top EU official and the head of a leading aid group said.

The global summit in Istanbul on May 23-24 is expected to draw 5,000 government and civil society delegates who will seek to agree on how humanitarian action should meet modern-day challenges.

The summit comes as hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict and poverty have crossed into Greece by sea from Turkey in the past year, triggering a humanitarian crisis.

Alarmed at the influx, the European Union and Turkey agreed to seal off the
route last month, after Balkan states closed their borders
to migrants trying to make their way to wealthy western Europe, stranding thousands in Greece.