UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls even as displacement crises worsen
UNHCR boss Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are now displaced around the world by conflicts, persecution, poverty and climate change.
The head of the U.N. refugee agency warned on Monday that displacement crises in Lebanon and Sudan could worsen, but said tighter border measures were not the solution, calling them ineffective and sometimes unlawful.
Addressing more than 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR's annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are now displaced around the world by conflicts, persecution, poverty and climate change.
More To Read
- US prosecutors reveal how Lebanese man was part of a plot to trade cocaine for Syrian weapons in Nairobi
- Cholera outbreak in Sudan kills 172, infects over 2,500 as MSF warns of escalating crisis
- Sudan's RSF converts Zamzam Refugee Camp into military base
- US imposes sanctions on Sudan over alleged use of chemical weapons in civil war
- Doctors Without Borders relocate services to Ethiopia as violence at South Sudan border escalates
- Kenya refugee camps face hunger crisis as WFP warns food aid could drop to 28pc
"You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders," he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.
"We must seek to address the root causes of displacement, and work toward solutions," he said. "I beg you all that we continue to work — together and with humility — to seize every opportunity to find solutions for refugees".
Without naming countries, Grandi said initiatives to outsource, externalise or even suspend asylum schemes were in breach of international law, and he offered countries help in finding fair, fast and lawful asylum schemes.
Western governments are under growing domestic pressure to get tougher on asylum seekers and Grandi has previously criticised a plan by the former British government to transfer them to Rwanda.
In the same speech he warned that in Lebanon, where more than one million people have fled their homes due to a growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the situation could worsen further.
"Surely, if airstrikes continue, many more will be displaced, and some will also decide to move on to other countries."
He called for a drastic increase in support for refugees in Sudan's civil war, saying lack of resources was already driving them across the Mediterranean Sea and even across the Channel to Britain."In this lethal equation, something has got to give. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if displacement keeps growing, in numbers but also in geographic spread," he said.
The UNHCR response to the crisis that aims to help a portion of the more than 11 million people displaced inside Sudan or in neighbouring countries is less than 1/3 funded, Grandi said.
The number of displaced people around the world has more than doubled in the past decade.
Grandi, set to serve as high commissioner until Dec. 2025, said the agency's funding for this year had recently improved due to U.S. support but remained "well below the needs".
Top Stories Today
