A Syrian refugee stands at the doorway of his family’s tent at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan, Monday, March 28, 2016.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was seeking to re-settle more than 450,000 Syrian refugees, some one-tenth of those now in neighboring countries, by the end of 2018, but conceded that it was battling widespread fear and politicization of the issue.

A ministerial-level conference is being held in Geneva on Wednesday with the participation of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

“The international context we are in – and nobody is naive about that – we know very well we’re dealing with a complex situation, increasing fear in many countries, increasing politicization of refugee, displacement and asylum issues. This is a difficult thing,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in response to a question.

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