Burden-Sharing Seen as Refugee Solution

Officials from Canada, Western Europe and Australia have agreed that a concerted international system of burden-sharing is needed to deal with an influx of Iranians and Sri Lankans seeking asylum, a U.N. official said Friday.

At the conclusion here of three days of talks on refugee problems, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that his office is worried about growing hostility to refugees and immigration barriers raised by traditional asylum countries and has urged governments to try to get together on a more contructive solution.