Obama calls on world leaders to do more to help refugees

 Gregory Korte, USA TODAY5:55 p.m. EDT September 20, 2016

(Photo: Julie Jacobson, AP)

NEW YORK — World leaders who gathered at a refugee summit Tuesday pledged $4.5 billion more in refugee aid and announced efforts to double the number of refugees resettled each year.

The new commitments come as the world attempts to cope with a mounting refugee crisis that has displaced more people than at any time since World War II. Fueled by conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan andSomalia, the number of refugees is now at 65.3 million and rising, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"We are facing a crisis of epic proportions," President Obama told the Leaders Summit on Refugees at the United Nations. "Those girls being trafficked and tortured, those could be our daughters. That boy on the beech could be our son, or grandson."

Obama, one of six leaders co-hosting the summit, came to the United Nations Tuesday with commitments from 51 U.S. companies who have agreed to hThe Obama administration has announced that it will increase the worldwide limit on refugees entering the United States from 85,000 in 2016 to 110,000 in 2017. Other countries at the summit made similar announcements, with their leaders coming to the podium one by one to tell stories about refugee families and proclaim their commitments.

They pledged to help increase school enrollment for refugees, ease restrictions on employment and housing, and provide refugees legalized status. The prime minister of Ethiopia, for example, said he would lift a longstanding ban on refugees working outside of camps.

But Obama also called on the world community to address the root causes of displacement. "If we truly want to address the crisis, wars like the savagery in Syria must be brought to an end. And it will brought to an end through political settlement and diplomacy, and not simply by bombing," he said.

Earlier in the day, Obama told the entire U.N. General Assembly that nations needed to follow through on their pledges "even when the politics are hard."

"There are a lot of nations right now that are doing the right thing," Obama said. But he said many others — "particularly those blessed with wealth and the benefits of geography" can do more.elp in the form of education, employment and $650 million in donations. They include a $1 million initiative by actor George Clooney and his Lebanese wife, Amal, to educate Syrian refugees in Lebanon.