As millions of people around the globe were marking World Refugee Day on Sunday, UNHCR chief António Guterres called on the international community to do more for the forcibly displaced.

High Commissioner made his call during a press conference in Syria – broadcast on a live video link – where he met earlier in the day with President Bashar Assad and other top leaders. Syria hosts about 1 million mainly Iraqi refugees, according to the government.

“I appeal to the international community to do more to host refugees,” Guterres said just two days after the UN refugee agency announced that 100,000 Iraqi refugees have been referred for resettlement from the Middle East to third countries since 2007, a major milestone for one of the world’s largest refugee populations.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, also made an appeal on behalf of refugees in a special World Refugee Day message. “Refugees have been deprived of their homes, but they must not be deprived of their futures,” he said, while calling for working with host governments to deliver services and for intensified efforts to resolve conflicts so that refugees can return home.

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