GENEVA (AP) — The pinnacle of the U.N. refugee company urged Monday that President Donald Trump’s America has carried out deportation practices that violate worldwide legislation, and criticized a wider “backlash” in some international locations in opposition to migrants and refugees.
Filippo Grandi, the U.N. excessive commissioner for refugees, used a speech to lament that drastic funding cuts and shortages have compelled his company, UNHCR, to slash almost 5,000 jobs this yr, or almost 1 / 4 of its workforce. The cuts might not be completed, he stated.
“This was certainly not an easy year for any of us,” Grandi advised the opening of UNHCR’s government committee. “But remember, please: There has never been an easy year to be a refugee — and there never will be.”
He did cite some shiny spots and praised the Trump administration-led peace efforts in Congo, the place battle has displaced thousands and thousands of individuals.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Photographs
On the U.N. Normal Meeting final month, the Trump administration — which has slashed assist this yr for worldwide humanitarian assist — pitched different international locations on its view that the worldwide system of looking for asylum has been abused and must be revamped, partially by cracking down on migration.
Different conventional donors have reduce their assist outlays for UNHCR this yr.
Lately, the company has obtained roughly $5 billion a yr — or half its budgetary necessities — whilst battle and repression in locations like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela and Ukraine have led the variety of individuals fleeing their houses to roughly double during the last decade — to 122 million.
Within the politically charged setting of right this moment, Grandi stated, “putting the (U.N.) Refugee Convention and the principle of asylum on the table would be a catastrophic error.” He insisted that “national sovereignty and the right to seek asylum ”aren’t incompatible. They’re complementary.”
Grandi, whose time period is up on the finish of this yr, decried an erosion of respect for worldwide legislation in sure developed international locations and famous that almost all refugees are taken in by poorer ones.
“I am worried that the current debate — in Europe, for example — and some current deportation practices — such as in the United States — address real challenges in manners not consistent with international law,” he stated.
Tommy Pigott, a U.S. State Division spokesman, defended U.S. immigration and migration insurance policies and stated Trump’s speech on the United Nations was “a call to action against the destructive policies promoting mass and illegal migration that globalist bureaucrats have pushed for years.”
“Our actions are consistent with U.S. law and the will of the American people, who demand secure borders and a lawful immigration system,” Pigott stated.
Grandi additionally cited some optimistic developments: Greater than 1 million refugees from Syria have now returned residence. A “glimmer of hope” has emerged within the japanese Congo battle between Rwanda-backed forces and Congo’s armed forces.
“Thanks to peace efforts spearheaded by the United States, instead of speaking only of more bloodshed, or more refugees, we can start to think – cautiously, but a little bit more optimistically — of stability and returns,” he stated.
