UNITED NATIONS secretary-general Ban Ki Moon called on countries around the world yesterday to take in more refugees from war-torn Syria.

Speaking at a conference in Geneva, he said refugees could bring new skills and experience to ageing workforces.

Mr Ban called on governments to “counter fearmongering” about refugees.

He asked representatives from more than 90 countries to pledge “new and additional pathways for the admission of Syrian refugees,” adding: “These pathways can include resettlement or humanitarian admission, family reunions, as well as labour or study opportunities.”

In the wake of the Brussels terror attacks, Poland’s Foreign Ministry said it would honour its pledge to accept 7,000 refugees — but only if they pass security checks.

Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed doubts on Tuesday evening that 7,000 such refugees could be found.

In an interview with Russian news website Sputnik, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said misplaced Western sanctions against his country were one of the main causes of the refugee crisis.

He said that economic losses and damage to infrastructure from the five-year war amounted to a staggering $200 billion (£140bn).

However, Mr Assad said that reconstruction work had already begun “to reduce the migration flow out of the
country.”

He added: “Maybe some will want to return when they see that there is hope.”

In France, police evicted nearly 1,000 refugees from a camp near Stalingrad station on the Paris Metro.

They reportedly included people from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Afghanistan who had been sleeping rough beneath elevated tracks for several weeks.

The Paris public transport authority closed the station at the Place de Stalingrad — named in memory of the Soviet victory over nazi invaders — during the operation.

The area has been the site of several refugee camps in recent years.

The French Interior Ministry claimed the eviction had been peaceful and that authorities had offered the migrants temporary lodging and help in applying for asylum.

“The street should not be a refuge” for people fleeing persecution, the ministry said.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s coastguard said that it had rescued 74 refugees on Sunday from an overloaded inflatable dinghy a few miles off the country’s Aegean coast, 70 of them Syrians.