Pressure on G20 to act on refugee rights

Leaders of the G20 group of nations face a call to commit to firm targets to help refugees and asylum seekers.

A man waits to be registered after arriving in Greece

G20 leaders will be asked to endorse targets to deal with the growing refugee crisis. (AAP)

G20 leaders will be asked to endorse targets to deal with the growing refugee crisis.

The call is included in draft recommendations from the Labour 20 (L20) to be presented to leaders at the G20 summit in Turkey in November.

The draft recommendations, obtained by AAP, call for all G20 nations to set targets for resettling refugees and asylum seekers and provide them with the right to work.

Refugees and asylum seekers should also be given proper labour, social, political and cultural rights.

G20 nations should recognise that they benefit from the skills and incomes of displaced people, the draft document says.

An estimated 600,000 people have fled north Africa and the Middle East by boat this year to seek refuge in Europe.

UN camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq are home to 4.2 million registered Syrian refugees.

The L20 - which involves trade union leaders meeting in the days before the G20 summit - will also seek leaders' approval of a concrete target for cutting youth unemployment by 15 per cent by 2025.

An estimated 200 million people in G20 countries aged between 15 and 29 are neither in employment or education.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to attend the G20 in Antalya from November 15-16.


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Source: AAP


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