Geneva (AP) – The UN Refugee Agency Director proposed President Donald Trump’s US implementation on Monday Deportation practices It violated international law and criticised some countries for a wider “repulsion” against migrants and refugees.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi used a speech lamenting that dramatic financing cuts and shortfalls had forced his agency, UNHCR, to cut nearly 5,000 jobs, or nearly a quarter of its workforce this year. The cut may not be over, he said.
“This certainly wasn’t an easy year for us,” Grandi told the opening of UNHCR’s executive committee. “But remember, there was never an easy year to become a refugee.
He cited several bright spots and praised Trump’s administration-led peace efforts in Congo, where the conflict drove millions of people.
The Trump administration was held at the UN General Assembly last month. Support has been reduced significantly this year For international humanitarian assistance – We sold other countries The view is that global systems seeking asylum are being abused and some need to be revamped by cracking down on the transition.
other Traditional donor This year we cut UNHCR spending.
In recent years, agencies have received around $5 billion a year, or half of its budget requirements, even if conflicts and repression in places like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela and Ukraine have led to 1222 million people who have nearly doubled the number of people fled in the past decade.
In today’s politically charged environment, Grandi said: Refugee Conventions and the Principles of Asylum on the Table It would be a catastrophic error. “He argued that “national sovereignty and right to seek asylum” were incompatible.
Grandi, whose term rose at the end of this year, condemned the erosion of respect for international law in certain developed countries, pointing out that most refugees are being taken by the poor.
“I’m worried that the current debate in Europe, for example, and current deportation practices like the US, will address the real challenges of manners that don’t align with international law,” he said.
The Trump administration said it had an obligation to remove “the worst, the worst.”
Grandi also cited some optimistic developments: over a million refugees from Syria I’ve just returned to my house. A “slightly hope” emerged in the conflict in eastern Congo between the Rwandan and Congolese forces.
“Thanks to the US-led peace efforts, we can start thinking carefully, but a little more optimistically – rather than talking about bloodshed and refugees alone,” he said.
