The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross is expected to use a speech on Wednesday to sound a warning about the dire global situation.
“I look at Syria: half of the population on the move and many of them displaced multiple times over the past years,” Peter Maurer will tell the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
“I look at Myanmar, another highly internationalised context with its religious, security, economic and political divides.”
Mr Maurer will call on the international community to do more to return refugees safely to their homes.
Peter Maurer, president of the international Red Cross, speaks with SBS News Source: SBS
“We must work simultaneously on supporting returns, but also avoid a situation where refugees live in indefinite legal and economic limbo for years,” he will say.
“After years of war, the result is broken health systems, damaged infrastructure, and shattered economies.”
Mr Maurer has also told reporters that while he is in Australia, he will also confidentially report to the government on the human rights situation in Nauru.
