Refugee crisis a test of our humanity: Obama

US President Barack Obama kicked off 'Leaders Summit on Refugees' during the 71st UN General Assembly session here on Tuesday by calling the refugee crisis "one the urgent tests of our time" and "a test of our common humanity", reports PTI.

While criticising Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump's rhetorics, Obama said if America turned away refugees simply because they are ‘Muslim’, it would reinforce the terrorists' propaganda and the ‘ugly lie’ that the US is opposed to Islam. He said the world was facing a refugee crisis of "epic proportions" with more than 65 million people having been driven from their homes, more than any time since the World War-II. "Among them are more than 21 million refugees who have fled their countries - everything and everyone they've ever known, fleeing with a suitcase or the clothes on their back," he said.

"And if we were to turn refugees away simply because of their background or religion, or, for example, because they are Muslim, then we would be reinforcing terrorist propaganda that nations like my own are somehow opposed to Islam, which is an ugly lie that must be rejected in all of our countries by upholding the values of pluralism and diversity," he said highlighting that in recent years, the US has put in place intensive screening and security checks to take in refugees as well as ensure the nation's security. It was Obama's eighth and final address to the UN body.

He told the summit that as President, he has increased the number of refugees America is resettling to 85,000 this year, which includes 10,000 Syrian refugees. In the coming fiscal year, the US will welcome and resettle 110,000 refugees from around the world - which is a nearly 60 percent increase over 2015.

The refugee crisis also tests the nations' shared security.