Art exhibition “Migratory Birds”

Ambassador Koru,
Ms. Thompson,
Ms. Gullu,
Mr. Can,
Ladies and gentlemen:

We all remember the image of the Syrian toddler in his red t-shirt and blue shorts washed up dead on the shores of the Greek island of Kos in 2015. Seeing it again here, as part of this exhibition, it breaks our hearts today as much as it did then.

For the children who manage to cross the Mediterranean Sea alive, setting foot on European ground is only the beginning of a long journey. Some may be detained in inhumane conditions. Most may not be able to go to school because they lack legal status. When they fall sick, they cannot access medical treatment or care. Being an easy prey for unscrupulous criminals or traffickers, they may be forced into dangerous forms of child labour. The trauma of this journey will stay with them all their lives.

Around the world, nearly 50 million children have migrated crossing an international border or been forcibly displaced – and this is a conservative estimate. More than half of these girls and boys fled violence and insecurity – 28 million of them.

If our shared humanity is measured against how we treat the most vulnerable, this is simply unacceptable.

I therefore thank Ambassador Koru and the Permanent Mission of Turkey for bringing this powerful exhibit to the Palais des Nations.

When we see the little boy lying there on the beach, we wish he could grow wings, to rise up into the sky and to go to safety, together with his family. We wish he could be like the migratory birds in the other images in this exhibition.

We, the international community, have the power to give wings to such children. One way of contributing to their brighter future is by successfully finalizing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees, both of which are being negotiated now and will be concluded this year. So, 2018 is really a crucial year for improving the international cooperation on migration and refugees.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I quote the words of Warsan Shire, a British-Somali poet who wrote:
“no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land”.

We are planting today the seeds of the world we will live in tomorrow.

Let us do everything in our power, here in Geneva and around the world, to make sure that children do not have to take life-threatening risks, but that they can grow wings and fly into a prosperous and
promising tomorrow.

Thank you all for being here with us today.