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UNHCR: Press conference - Annual Report on Forced Displacement 10 June2024
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Press Conferences
UNHCR: Press conference - Annual Report on Forced Displacement - 10 June 2024
TITLE: UNHCR warns against apathy and inaction amid spike in forced displacement COUNTRY: Switzerland
LOCATION: Palais des Nations
SHOOT DATE: 10 June 2024
RELEASE DATE: 13 June 2024
CREDITS: Linda Muriuki, Producer / Alex St-Denis, Editor / UNTV, Camera SOURCE: IUNTV - UNHCR
LANGUAGE: English
DURATION: 5:30 mins
LEDE-IN: Overall numbers of people forced to flee, rise to 120 million by May 2024 with conflicts from Sudan to Gaza to Myanmar creating new displacement and urgently require resolution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Forced displacement surged to historic new levels across the globe last year and this, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The rise in overall forced displacement – to 120 million by May 2024 – was the 12th consecutive annual increase and reflects both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises.
The figure would make the global displaced population equivalent to the 12th largest country in the world, around the size of Japan’s.
A key factor driving the figures higher has been the devastating conflict in Sudan: at the end of 2023, 10.8 million Sudanese remained uprooted. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar, millions were internally displaced last year by vicious fighting. UNRWA estimates that by the end of last year, up to 1.7 million people (75 per cent of the population) had been displaced in the Gaza Strip by the catastrophic violence, most of whom were Palestine refugees. Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 13.8 million forcibly displaced in and outside the country.
The largest increase in displacement figures came from people fleeing conflict who remain in their own country, rising to 68.3 million people according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre – up almost 50 per cent over five years.
The number of refugees, and others in need of international protection, climbed to 43.4 million when including those under UNHCR and UNRWA’s mandates. The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighbouring their own, with 75 per cent residing in low- and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20 per cent of the world’s income.
The report showed that worldwide, more than 5 million internally displaced people and 1 million refugees returned home in 2023. These figures show some progress towards longer-term solutions. Positively, resettlement arrivals increased to almost 160,000 in 2023.
SHOTLIST:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:14
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
“We estimate that the most updated figure is now 120 million. So, it has gone up by another 6 million. These are refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, people being forced by conflict, by persecution, by different and increasingly complex forms of violence. And they've had to flee their homes, either in their own country or crossing borders and becoming refugees. 120 million is a pretty high figure. And what is also very significant, most regrettably, it is that it is the 12th consecutive year in which this figure goes up and on this occasion, on this, June occasion, conflict remains a very, very big driver of displacement.”
00:01:04:09 - 00:01:38:21
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
“I mean, many conflicts have driven this, growth in displacement. I would certainly single out Sudan because in Sudan, where the conflict has now been going on, this phase of the conflict has been going on for 14 months, almost 14 months. the number of people displaced is staggering. About 9 million either internally displaced or about 2 million that have crossed borders. Now, some of them
Page 2 of 2
13 Jun, 2024 12:24 PM
were already counted under last year's report, but that figure has kept growing in Chad alone. people are arriving in the hundreds every day.
00:01:50:23- 00:02:12:00
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
The other crisis that I wanted to single out is Myanmar. Of course, not only because UNHCR remains deeply engaged with the Rohingya refugees that have fled from Myanmar, but also because since the coup d'état a few years back, violence has continued to grow inside the country.”
00:02:12:18 - 00:02:42:23
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
“But this report says very clearly, once again, that 75% of those forcibly displaced, be they internally or externally forcibly displaced, live in countries that are either poor or middle income countries. So the big force displacement phenomenon is not in the rich country. In spite of the perception.”
00:02:42:28 - 00:03:18:02
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
“Funding has remained extremely, extremely tight, as usual you may say, but with the increase in challenges, in numbers of people, in in different crisis with the strong attraction for funding represented by situations in the Middle East, Gaza in particular, or Ukraine, clearly some other operation, some other situations, Sudan in particular.”
00:03:18:04 - 00:03:31:00
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
“Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the Afghan situation remain and many others, Congo remain severely underfund so that is an area that needs a lot of attention.”
00:03:31:13 - 00:04:02:01
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
One should add, increasingly tight environment in which especially refugees move into, especially in rich countries, restrictive laws, constrains in some cases outright signal phobia and, and hostility often fueled by some politicians. All of this creates an extremely difficult environment, which, of course, we must meet. We must continue to work in.”
00:04:02:15 - 00:04:38:10
-Filippo Grandi – UN High Commissioner for refugees (Man, English)
“Unless there is a shift in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see that figure continuing to go up, maybe not significantly. If we're lucky and we have no new conflicts, but even the non- resolution of the old ones means that, you know, also refugees increase in numbers. so. I hope still that there that somebody will see that there is a need for that light at the end of the tunnel. But at the moment I remain very, prudent in this respect.”
SHOTLIST:
Various of cut aways at Press Conferencee
June 10, 2024
RF1357013
UNHCR's Annual Report Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2024
Speakers:
Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Tarek Abou Chabake, UNHCR Chief statistician
Under strict embargo until 13 June 2024 05:01 CEST
TERMS OF USAGE OF THE EDITED STORY ONLY: Mandatory on-screen credit in the format '© UNHCR' is required for any and all usage of UNHCR footage and ‘© UNHCR’ is required for audio and multimedia unless stated otherwise.
Teleprompter
Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you can hear me. Uh, clearly,
I think we're ready to to start.
So I'm Shab a
man.
I'm a spokesperson for UN HCR the UN refugee agency.
And we're very happy to welcome you here today to the embargoed press briefing
we have for the release of our flagship yearly report called Global Trends,
which, as you know, provides the latest, uh,
annual statistics on the state of worldwide,
uh, force displacement.
We will come to the, um, to the to the press briefing,
and I will introduce our very special guest.
But before that, also, I would like to mention,
uh, of a new senior appointment here at UN HCR.
We have a new head of, uh, the global Communication Service,
Ewan Watson, who's here with us also in the room.
Uh, so do do make, uh, you and feel welcome. And
yeah, and of course, he is no stranger to the the press corps here,
in in in Geneva and elsewhere.
But we'd like to welcome him.
So, um,
I'm very delighted to to introduce you again to
bring back our UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
Filippo Grandi
and also UN HCRS uh, chief statistician Tariq Abu
Shae,
who is, uh, the mastermind behind the report.
So we will, uh, go through the embargoed press briefing.
I'd like to remind you all that there is a very
strict embargo of one minute past five o'clock in the morning,
uh, central, uh, european summertime.
Um, and that is on Thursday, 14th of June.
So we would just ask you to respect the embargo and make sure nothing related,
Uh uh uh, to the reporting of the the report and the the briefing today is,
uh is not released or published before then.
Um and we hope you've also received the, uh,
embargoed media page and materials as well.
You would have received an email, uh, for that.
And if you haven't do contact us after afterwards,
Um so I just also want to say that, uh,
given we have the the presence of our high commissioner here,
we will go to the embargoed part of the briefing.
First, we'll go, uh, to remarks by the High Commissioner and questions and answers,
uh, with the High Commissioner and also Tariq.
But afterwards we will have a few minutes, uh, for a non
embargoed part of the briefing,
Uh, in case there are other questions that you would, uh, like to to pose.
But we will signal when that, uh, will start.
So without further ado, let's go over to the High Commissioner.
Thank you,
Shaa.
And, uh,
good afternoon, everybody.
this is our yearly statistical moment. As you know, we do it every year.
And, uh, of course, we update statistics
fairly regularly, but
this is fairly symbolic.
It comes just before World Refugee Day, which is on the 20th of June,
and it is meant, really, to shed a light
on the global
situation of forced displacement.
So it is about refugees. It is about
people displaced in their own countries.
It is, in fact, also about stateless people that fall under our mandate.
the figure of this year and this is the main piece of news that I have to share with you
is higher than last year.
we estimate
or we estimated that at the end of 20.
Sorry.
The last figure that we have been sharing with you, if you recall, was 114 million.
So we estimate that
the most updated figure is now 120 million, so it has gone up by another 6 million.
These are refugees,
asylum seekers,
internally displaced people,
people being forced by
conflict by
persecution
by
different
and increasingly complex forms of violence
and have had to flee their homes either in their own country or crossing borders
and becoming refugees. 120 million. This is a pretty high figure
and what is
also very significant,
most regrettably,
it is that it is the 12th consecutive year in which this figure goes up.
And on this occasion on this June occasion,
conflict remains a very, very big driver
of displacement.
Last year, UN
HCR declared
43 emergencies in 29 countries.
I use this figure,
uh, frequently because I think it's interesting.
I've been, you know, I've said it many times. I've been looking back at what we did,
what we have done in past years.
This figure, until 23 years ago, used to be on average, eight maximum 10 times a year.
It has gone up four times the number of em.
We have certain criteria to declare an
emergency that requires specific resources 43 times.
These are new conflicts
or conflicts that are already ongoing and
have a particular surge in violence or in impact on civilians.
And of course you must have. Well, maybe, maybe not.
Some of you may have followed what I said to the Security Council just a few days ago,
literally
the way conflicts are conducted by the
parties almost everywhere by almost all parties,
in complete disregard of the laws of war, of international humanitarian law
and often with the specific purpose of
terrorising people of making people
instil fear in people.
This, of course,
is a powerful contributor to more displacement than even in the past.
And this is why I
is such an important feature
of the work of many of us in the aid community. Not only
that has the custodianship of of that
set of laws, but for all of us. It's very, very important.
The big
I
mean, many conflicts have driven this growth in displacement.
I would certainly single out Sudan
because in Sudan, where the conflict has now been going on,
this phase of the conflict has been going on
for 14 months,
almost 14 months.
Um, the number of people displaced is staggering.
About 9 million,
either internally displaced or about 2 million that have crossed borders
now. Some of them were already counted
under last year's report, but that figure has kept growing
in Chad alone.
People are arriving in the hundreds every day just
to give you an example in south Sudan,
where I will be for World Refugee Day.
Same and in other countries,
I can speak more about Sudan.
I am very keen to single it out first because I think it is a crisis. That
and this is not applying to you who
report from here. So hear about that a lot, but generally doesn't really make it
to the headline is a very forgotten crisis,
although it's one of the most catastrophic ones,
not just in terms of displacement but
in terms of hunger, lack of access, violation of human rights
and so forth.
The other crisis that I wanted to single out is Myanmar, of course,
not only because
remains deeply engaged with the Rohingya refugees that have fled from Myanmar,
but also because since the coup d'etat a few years back,
violence has continued to grow inside the country.
Violence
carried out
in the fights in the different
different
conflicts between
the military that are in power
in
NEDA and different
armed groups representing different ethnic groups.
We are particularly we are particularly worried
about what's happening in Rakhine state.
This is
in the west of the country. This is the
the state from which the Rohingya originate
and the situation is very complex there because a new conflict, not a new conflict.
An existing conflict has now escalated between
the
Myanmar army, the
Tatmadaw
and
the Arakan Army, which is one of these ethnic armed groups.
And this is causing all sorts of problems and impact, including on the Rohingya.
But
suffice it to say that I remember I briefed the council in October last year.
I told them that there was an escalation of conflict
inside the country that was going to cause displacement.
I briefed them again
a few days ago and I told them that between
the briefing last time and now 1.5 more million people
were displaced and they will be almost all of them counted in this new report.
And then there is Gaza, you know
is not
involved in Gaza.
For all the reasons that we have mentioned to you many times.
But this report is about displacement globally, not just of people whom
we deal with as an organisation.
So of course,
in Gaza live normally before this round of
conflict before the seventh of October lived about,
I
think it's 1.61 0.7
Palestine refugees. These are counted under our statistics as refugees.
Although they are the responsibility of UNRWA. As you know
now, many of them are displaced.
The
estimate is that
well over 1.7 million people in Gaza have been displaced. As you all know,
many of them
being pushed against the Egyptian border.
Many of them are Palestinian refugees already.
So somehow for them it is a repeat of history to be displaced
now without going into too many technical details.
We have not counted these people twice,
So if they were already counted as Palestine refugees,
unfortunately now they are also displaced.
But they were not counted again.
But those that were not refugees,
just Gaza citizens and they were displaced are part of this.
This number am I correct
in saying
I am speaking under his control because it is very complex issues.
There are many other places where displacement has increased.
But these are the ones that I wanted to single out, also because
they are the most current. But we should not forget
the very long,
endless conflict that
continue to have an element of displacement. Afghanistan,
Syria,
Yemen,
the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Somalia, Venezuela,
Nicaragua, many others.
I
can speak about more if you wish. Just a few
thematic issues that I wanted to add one is, Let's
let's not forget I said it many times to you here and elsewhere,
that this
population movements that we're talking about that are reported here
are of an extreme complexity.
We call them mixed flows. It's a bit of a dry word, but
it describes how complicated and complex they are.
the factors. The drivers I mentioned
conflict and violence, violations of human rights.
But increasingly they get mixed with other factors climate
in particular or climate change. Rather has an impact on population movement,
and in particular,
this is that the aspect of the climate crisis that is of interest to
it has a close relationship with conflict.
It can be a driver of conflict, and hence of displacement,
especially when
the very scarce resources of poor communities become even scarcer than
because of climate change that drives conflict.
We've seen it in so many parts in Africa,
in the Sahel, for example, in the Horn of Africa, but also elsewhere.
So this is an important feature.
And then you have these population movements that,
with increased human mobility,
tend to move from one country to the other and sometimes reach the
shores of the Mediterranean or
the US Mexican border or
South Africa or
Southeast Asia
and so forth.
And
of course,
especially when these flows reach rich countries
immediately because rich countries drive global communications.
The perception that is generated is that all the refugees
or all the migrants go to these rich countries.
But this report says very clearly once again that 75%
of those forcibly displaced
be they, internally or externally,
forcibly displaced live in countries that are
either poor or middle income countries.
So
the big
force
force
displacement
phenomenon is not in the rich country. In spite of the perception,
solutions
are very rare.
I think that our statistics say that about 5 to 6,000,006 million people
have returned to their home during last year. This is mostly
the internally displaced people that have found a solution.
Only about 1 million refugees
here and there have been able to go back to their country, a very small figure
compared to the total.
So there is no comparison between newly displaced
and those that are not displaced anymore.
That this proportion is such that this is why this figure continue to go
to go up. But of course, solutions do exist.
I want to mention I know my colleagues have mentioned this many times to you,
but let me mention
at least one important initiative that of
the government of Kenya. The
ska plan, it is called
the President has decided, and the country has. The institutions have approved
that
the 600 for the 600,000 refugees in Kenya, mostly Somalis
and South Sudanese measures will be progressively taken
to include them in the communities in which they live.
I can give you more details, but I consider that a little bit in counter tendency,
a positive trend, and Kenya being an important country in East Africa,
a leading country in a way, I hope that this will have a positive impact,
also on other countries.
Another
theme I wanted to mention is that funding has remained extremely, extremely tight
as usual, you may say, but with the increase
in challenges in numbers of people in different crises, with the
strong attraction for funding represented by
situations in the Middle East, Gaza in particular or Ukraine
clearly
some other operations, some other situations Sudan, in particular,
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,
the Afghan situation
remain and many others Congo remain severely underfunded.
So that is an area that needs a lot of attention.
You will see from the statistics very interesting that
there is a rise again.
Tarique speak under your control in the number of
new asylum claims.
This number is growing
and
this is significant
because in many countries this goes in parallel with
an increase in the backlog of unresolved asylum claim.
The biggest backlog is probably in the United States,
and
this is why we keep telling governments that it is extremely important to
invest resources in asylum systems in
order to become more efficient in adjudicating
asylum claims.
I could give you a lot more examples or aspects, but I'll stop here.
I just want to conclude by saying,
You know, some of you may ask me
So is this a very difficult moment?
Yes, it is a very difficult moment, I think,
the combination of conflict of other complex drivers of displacement
of, as I said to the Security Council, very fragmented international politics,
which means less political solutions to conflict
and hence less solutions to force displacement.
The one should add
an increasingly tight environment in which especially refugees move into,
especially in rich countries, restrictive laws, constraints
in some cases, outright
xenophobia and
and hostility often fueled by some politicians. All of this creates
an extremely difficult environment, which, of course,
we must continue to work in.
You know that in December last year, we convened the second Global Refugee Forum,
4000 people came.
Hundreds of pledges were made. I think it was a very positive moment, showing
that when people are motivated around an issue which
is well explained with clear propositions of concrete action,
you can still
operate together.
But it's tough
and becoming more difficult,
and we need international support for that. Thank you.
Thank you, High Commissioner. So we will then go to questions about,
the the global trends report and the remarks
that the High Commissioner has made about that.
So I see some, um, hands in the room and online. Um, let's start with Nina.
And if you can, just when we open the mic to state your name and affiliation again.
Thank you. So, Nina Larson a FP.
Um so I'll only ask questions about the report. Now, I have other questions. OK,
great.
Um, so I just wanted to ask you talk about the 12th consecutive year, Um,
that this number has gone up.
Is there any any reason to believe that that trend, uh, might turn around?
Or we can we just expect this this trend
to keep growing?
You were mentioning the difficult political climate and
everything is Do you sort of see any light
at the end of that tunnel? Thank you.
Unless there is a shift
in international geopolitics.
Unfortunately, I actually see that figure continuing to go up.
Maybe not significantly if
we are lucky and we have no new conflict. But even
the non resolution of the old ones means that also refugees increase in numbers.
So
I hope still that there that
somebody will see that there is a need for that light at the end of the tunnel.
But at the moment, I remain
very, um,
prudent in in this in this respect,
we have seen, uh
the debate in the count
in the
the Security Council is,
in a way, the thermometer
of
of
the backgrounds of the situations in which we operate, right of your question
of whether we will move toward
a more
favourable context in terms of peace making.
And frankly,
all I see in the debates on the Council
is a great deal of divisiveness on everything even,
you know,
arriving at conclusions on humanitarian resolutions like we've seen around Gaza,
for example.
But Sudan is the same, and we've seen it in Ukraine.
Seems very difficult for the council.
So if they if they cannot agree, the hope for solutions is is
is weakening,
and that is very bad. But
I can assure you that we won't give up.
OK, let's go to Mussa. Please state your name and affiliation
and then
open
it.
Friend.
The
frontier frontier.
No
case.
The refugee Alex
de Gaza.
Catastrophic
Palestinian
Israel
Palestinian
and
complex.
Dramatic.
Um
AAA
de
la
extern
No.
Uh uh.
For
example.
Complex
Pass a
uni
me
de
la
capacity
as
system.
Not that.
OK, let's go to the online platform.
We've got, uh, a number of, uh, participants also online.
So we'll start with Laurent Laurent also,
if you can state your full name and affiliation.
Sure. The
Swiss News Agency. Uh, thanks for the
press conference and congrats to E one, that I saw on the on the screen.
Um, actually, it's a follow up to the to the previous, uh, answer.
But on the on the broader on a different topic on the resettlement question
because, uh, there is that figure in the report that mentions 160,000,
which is growing.
But
last week, uh, you released another figure, the one of, uh,
almost 3 million people that will need that
next year. So the question would be with all the numerous, uh
uh, election this year in dozens of countries and the results that we saw yesterday,
uh, in the European election, how does that might affect
the possibility for resettlement next year? According to you? Thank
I hope not. Too much resettlement
is a
solution that
many states understand
it is a safe and controlled way
for refugees to move from one country to the other
and that needs to be remembered.
You are right to say that the
needs remain enormous, disproportionate to the offer.
3 million people. That's our estimate of people that would need resettlement.
But it's good that we have seen an increase.
You know,
the increase has been driven largely by the very
steep increase in resettlement figures in the United States,
and that continues to be growing.
Actually, we will probably have even more this year than last year, so that's good.
We are still very far because in fact the problem is that other countries are not
well, Canada, Australia, Germany are quite good,
but other countries are not contributing enough.
I go back to the point that I made in French a few moments ago.
These very complicated flows into Europe into us
that are very problematic to deal with.
I want to repeat what I said also in English. You cannot
only deal with one aspect of it and you know states
tend to deal with the control aspect and their own border.
Often it's too late to solve these problems when
people come at your border because it becomes very,
very complicated legally, operationally, politically and so forth.
So we are really telling everybody. Look at the whole route from the beginning
to the
and
and there are so many solutions that can be found for people along these routes.
Resettlement is one of them resettlement and other pathways, as we call them now,
because there is not just resettlement in the
US in the Americas with the United States,
we have launched this new
project that is called safe mobility offices.
So people on the ways are screened very fast
and those that are eligible for resettlement or
other forms of residence in the United States can
go through an accelerated procedure. This is good. This is positive.
We are telling European countries to look at that
model because maybe it can be used here.
And remember, in the end,
Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, rich countries need more people,
need more people to work,
need more people in their public services in their health services,
need more people to take care of an ageing population.
This is very important. It is an opportunity, but this needs to be regulated
much better
so that the flow of people is legally safe and
doesn't cause all the problems that irregular flows are causing.
Having said all this,
even with much more resettlement, even with a more regulated set of pathways,
we always say this should not be at the expense of asylum in Europe,
meaning that there will, even if you have all the path
in the world,
there will be still people that arrive in Europe directly and seek asylum.
That right to seek asylum in Europe must be maintained.
It's not because you have other pathways that everybody can go through them.
So you have to maintain that, right? Because if Europe gives up
the offer of giving asylum to people arriving on its territory,
the whole world will backtrack from that.
And then we will have people trapped in wars
trapped in situations of abuse of human rights.
Thank you. And, uh, colleagues, please, uh, in in case of any, uh, other questions.
Do, uh, keep your your hands raised in the chat?
Um, And also, uh, before we go to our next question, just, uh, I.
I think I misspoke before, and I said, Uh,
the embargoed, uh, release is on Thursday, uh, 14th June,
but it's obviously Thursday, 13th of June.
Um, so just to clarify.
So let's go back to to our questions. We have Lisa online. Lisa, over to you.
Uh, thanks. Sha
Uh, Lisa Schlei,
Voice of America.
Uh, Commissioner, you were talking about the issue of asylum in, uh,
the European Union. I'd like to have your comment
on, uh, the new Biden policy regarding immigration.
Uh uh, and, uh, tightening the bo the US borders,
um, against people who are fleeing from various countries
and in specific specifically what it does. Is it
it? It, uh, it sort of reduces the number of people who are able to apply for
asylum. Uh, is this in accordance with international refugee law?
I mean, if you if you arbitrarily or maybe deliberately, whatever it is,
decide that 2500 people can apply in one day and that,
uh, 2500 and one person the first person cannot apply.
Uh, is this all right?
Yeah. Uh, actually, you you must have seen our press release the last week. I.
I happen to be in Washington on that day myself. So
we we worked on that and put it out. And we said We we answered exactly your question.
Yeah, of course.
This, by the way, just for everybody's clarity. This applies to people that cross
the non official border crossing, not the official border crossing.
Those do not have limits
or have other criteria. But
for the non official, you have a kind of cap. Now.
I don't know exactly how they call it, but it's a kind of cap.
And of course, we would say that
if when if when that is applied,
it will prevent some people that have the right to seek asylum from doing so.
So in that sense, it is a variance with refugee law.
I just want to say not to try to make this less serious because it is very serious.
I
just want to say, Remember that meanwhile,
lots of other people can have access to the territory in the United States.
Those crossing through the approved points,
those coming from through resettlement
very high figure. Their target this year is 125,000.
Those coming through the safe mobility offices and
different parole arrangements.
We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people.
So the US continues to be a generous country in terms of receiving people.
But of course, because it has a phenomenal challenge along the border,
they have now taken measures, some of which, we believe,
go beyond what we would accept as in line with the law.
OK, um, any other questions in the room?
If not we we will then, um perhaps
move to the non
embargoed part of the roofing.
So just a last chance for any other questions.
You have a question for the global trends report or the non embargoed?
OK, I'll just give it a last, uh, opportunity for questions on global trends.
Um, and as we mentioned, uh,
do let us know in case you haven't received any of the materials.
Um, but hopefully that is, uh, that that has been received.
OK, well, then that concludes the global trends portion of the briefing.
And as we mentioned at the start, we have a little opportunity, uh,
having the the the the presence of our high Commissioner here for a non
embargoed part of the briefing in which you could use,
uh, the responses, uh, for publishing, Uh, soon as we we conclude
so we'll go to Nina first.
Can I just add before
speaks?
The previous question also
is not embargoed
on the US because this was just not to contradict you,
but that was not really about global trends.
So Lisa, please use that question. No problem.
OK, sure. So just to clarify, the last question
is non embargoed. The question on the US
and the
two,
Could
I?
It's only the ones about the figures and the trends, but, uh,
I was gonna say if it would be possible
to just have a reaction to the European elections
and the very far right, uh, wins that that we saw there and what that might have of
an impact when it comes to migration and refugees. What rea
I'm not a politician. I voted
a
European
for
I mean what it will have to do, I say for refugees and the acceptance of refugees look
couple of things because I think this is an important question.
First of all,
I sincerely hope
that now that
at least at European level,
the campaign is over
because the election has been held,
some of the anti migration and anti
refugee rhetoric that we heard during the campaign
will go down OK, you made your point.
Some of you may have even got votes because of that.
Now let's get to work, which is the most important thing.
And then that's the point. We work.
We will work with Whoever
will
will be part of the European institutions.
You know, we work with all of them Parliament, council
and commission.
There will be three new sets of institutions. We will work with all of them.
Europe has
the institutions, as you know, adopted a pact for migration and asylum
in the outgoing institutions
that will continue to be
to be
carried out.
They are in a two year preparation period for the implementation of
the pact and we think we have said it many times.
The pact is not flawless.
The pact is complex to apply.
But I hope and this is my hope,
maybe my trust, but certainly my hope
that the new institutions will uphold the pact and
will implement it because the implementation of the pact,
if they manage to do it
again complex difficult,
I think could improve the situation.
The management of these complex arrivals in Europe, but by the way,
and this is again,
another aspect of my reaction.
One important aspect of the pact is
external.
Addressing root causes climate, conflict, poverty for these complex flows,
those addressing the root causes will require
substantive political and economic and financial
investments on the part of Europe.
So another hope that I have for the new institutions is
that these investments even increase even more than the past institutions.
Europe must be a political player.
Europe is a big humanitarian donor, is a big development actor.
This needs to become much more strategic in order to address the
causes of these movements and help all the countries in transit.
But they need to be accompanied by
robust unified political action by European countries.
Given the divisions that I have spoken about globally,
that seem to be reflected in part also in Europe it is a concern.
But without that
political unity to address,
no matter how much noise European politicians make about walls,
push backs closing here, closing there, they will not solve the problem.
The problem is very strategic and requires a lot of work on all these fronts.
I hope the new institutions will do that.
But we will work with anybody
as usual.
OK, let's go back on to the online platform. And I see we have a question from Maya.
Maya. Also, if you can state your full name
and affiliation,
Uh, thank you very much for taking my question. Sha
I I'm Maya. Plans
from the UN brief. My question is related to Latin America and the Caribbean.
What are the drivers of, uh, forced population displacement? And
what are the trends you are seeing in this report?
We're back to the report now. It's all right.
Use your judgement, please.
Because this is if it's about the report, maybe this should wait until Thursday.
But I
think, um,
like I said in my introduction,
conflict continues to be a driver. Look at Haiti, for example.
Um
uh, um,
difficult situation of human rights
is another driver. Look at Nicaragua,
then you have very complex situations like Venezuela, where
you have a mix of different factors, including,
a crisis in public services in law and order. In some places of the country,
this also
drives, drives people, you know, moves people. So you have different. Uh uh,
And you have increasingly
look at Ecuador. Look at certain countries in Central America
criminal gangs perpetrating violence of a kind
that implies things that normally states do,
like occupy territory
or
forcibly recruit
Children or mi, you know, minors
or,
um, abusing women for the sake of intimidating communities. Extortions.
So this type of violence also generates a lot
of displacement in Latin America and in other places,
but especially there.
And, uh
so it's once again an array of causes that create displacement,
and they all need to be addressed in their own merit
so that it's a mix of political action in the cases of conflict.
it's a mix. It's a it's it's
there's a big development component.
and
there are other,
you know, like we said, complementary pathways, resettlement,
other solutions for the people on the move again,
there is not one
magic wand that solves it all.
You have to have a package of solutions and approaches.
Thank you. Hi, Commissioner.
Um, may I've got a hand to raise for you again. Is it a follow up question?
Or it's a new question or it's maybe just an old hand
you know, it's a follow up question. It's actually about Brazil.
Also the case of Brazil. If, uh
uh, uh uh, Mr Grady could comment on that.
And also, um if it would be possible to have more often, um, press conferences,
press briefings
on the region, uh, of, uh, LA in America and the Caribbean,
because I feel like we don't cover that enough here at the UN in Geneva.
On your second point, I pass it on to my colleagues. I'm sure that they will be happy to
oblige. We have quite a lot of work in that region
and very interesting things to share. So definitely I agree with you.
I mean, I don't know how much is done, but
if more needs to be done, I think it's good. And by the way, together with
as well, we work very closely with
in the Americas.
And I think it would be good also to speak together about what we do jointly
on Brazil. I don't know about the comment.
Maybe simply to say that of course, we have a big programme there.
Brazil hosts a large number of Venezuelans,
but also of refugees from many other parts of the world.
The government of President Lula has been very open. In that sense,
we have been working closely on certain things,
in particular with the Brazilian
government in particular strengthening their capacity
to manage refugees from many parts of the world. Afghanistan, for example, Syria.
You know Brazil didn't necessarily have that capacity to begin with.
It's a country very far away.
But the fact that they made available
they made the protection available to these people is very,
very commendable.
And but Brazil
asked us to work together to strengthen their capacity to handle that
and of course,
especially for the many Venezuelans and other people
from the region that are in the country,
we have worked with Brazil or we have helped Brazil because
they have the leadership on this in creating integration opportunities.
Um, I visited myself and my colleagues know well, very interesting
programmes of I think it's called Interior
is ASA
in Portuguese, which means integration,
and they are extremely interesting with the private
sector of Brazil also very deeply involved.
Finally,
what we have observed is populations that have resided for a long time in Brazil
and for economic reasons, especially during Covid
and not having any more
ways to be supported moving on many of the Haitians
that we have seen on the move at least some
of the Haitians they don't necessarily come from Haiti.
During this crisis, they were already in Brazil, Chile and other places,
and they moved on.
So complex situations like I said,
that need to be unpacked and dealt with piece by piece.
Thank you. Hi, Commissioner.
And my, um I wasn't sure if your question was in the context of global transport.
Tariq, I'm not sure if you wanted to add anything on
Brazil in terms of the the report or any observations of the Venezuela situation,
Not necessarily just to confirm the number is quite striking.
If you look at the annex tables of the report, once you have a chance,
the number exceeds half a million
that spread across asylum seekers,
refugees and other people in need of international protection.
So it's quite a striking
striking number for Brazil itself
and also maybe just, uh, Maya. We're very encouraged by your interest in the region.
In fact, we have very active colleagues who are,
uh, Conti, who continue to communicate and advocate.
And, uh, we also count on your support and the support of the press corps to really,
uh,
keep the visibility on these crises because there's a lot of forced displacement
in other regions across the world,
including in Brazil and many other countries in the region that are doing
such a remarkable job of hosting refugees. And
they don't necessarily have the largest amount of visibility.
But well noted that there's definitely a continued interest in that.
So I think we have another five minutes before we conclude the briefing.
Um, there have been a few sections which have been, uh, non
embargoed.
Uh, if you are confused about them or it's a bit, uh, unclear, please come to us.
but just to reiterate that anything related to
the global trends report or about the figures,
uh, is obviously embargoed.
But as the High Commissioner mentioned the answers to the question on Gaza,
um, the US and and the European uh, election is not embargoed. But in case of any
clarity that is required again, do come to us, we'll go over to you For perhaps I
think we have room for two more questions. So
first and then
we'll see in the platform
Gabriel
to
Fibre
Reuters news agency
just to go back to Sudan.
There's been the closure of the hospital
Al
Fasher.
Its things are not going well in Darfur.
I'm just wondering
what kind of access
in light of the recent fighting, uh,
does UN HCR have and what kind of resources
are able to get through the through to Darfur
from Chad, Thank you.
Very limited access and very limited resources.
Unfortunately, in fact, these are the two big challenges in
responding to that crisis besides the politics, which is not our domain,
but hopefully somebody takes care of that.
But access is difficult. You know. You need to have access
both across front lines inside Sudan
and across border
from outside Sudan. And this has been a challenge
has been a challenge because
it means bringing aid from the zone controlled by one of the two to the other,
and they are not necessarily very keen to allow us to do that.
So it's we've been able to do it, but
much less than needed.
Likewise cross border.
Initially, we used to cross mostly at least the U
through
a through
Chad.
Then the Sudanese armed forces asked us to pass through another
crossing point, which for them was
safer. I mean, not safer. It was more
according to their own
views, and that caused a lot of delays.
So we need to go back to being able to cross lines and borders
to the most expeditious points.
Our purpose is not military. We are not supporting any faction.
We are supporting civilians that are starving,
and by the way, we want to be present in those areas also as a tool of protection.
We hear so much from refugees
coming into chat, for example, about horrifying abuses, rape,
recruitment of Children. Once again.
When I was there, I even heard about mutilations.
It's pretty horrifying what's happening in Darfur
in particular, but not only also in parts of
cordovan
in Khartoum
city and in other places.
So
very bad situation. The other one is money.
You know, there was this conference in Paris.
2 billion
more than $2 billion
offered, pledged very little has reached us. We're still, um
when I say us not just in
in fact, the aid community.
We're still very poorly funded,
uh, inside Sudan and in refugee hosting countries.
So we are now following up with those that
pledge to accelerate those pledges because the combination of
no access and no money who can understand means that we cannot do what we need to do.
And if you if you read
and
report you see that the indicators of famine are going up.
And like I said, human rights violations are multiplying. Very bad situation.
I think it's really one of the worst in the
world and one of the least supported in the world.
OK, thank you. So we have room for one last question. Actually, we've got two hands.
So maybe we'll we'll listen to them both and
then we'll go over to the High commissioner.
Um, but if you can please just, uh, keep it a little concise.
So maybe if it's OK, Lauren, we'll go to Catherine and then to So Katherine,
maybe we unmute you first.
Uh, thank you so much. Uh,
shabby.
And, um, good afternoon to all of you.
Um Kathrine Fion
Kambo
conga. Franz
Katra.
I'd like to to to catch up About what? Um uh Mr Flipo Grande just said about pledges.
Um, I, I have the impression when you, uh we listen now, um, to, uh,
heads of humanitarian entities that there's a
kind of movement of countries that are,
in fact, doing pledges and then not
donating.
So is it something that you you, you see
that countries are not respecting In fact, the pledges
that they are doing during big conferences,
international conferences Thank you so much.
Thank you, Catherine.
We'll come back to you, but we'll go to Laurent, um, to take your question.
And then the High Commissioner will answer both.
Yeah, thanks.
So in five days, there will be that, uh, summit on the peace in Ukraine, in the
Burgenstock and in all the different plans that are going to be discussed,
there is no real mention of refugees.
Uh, there is a call to repatriate the Children that were sent to to Russia.
But what would you like as the High Commissioner
for Refugees to be added in the discussions?
Because most of the countries that are present that will be present
are countries which host a number of Ukrainian refugees. Thank you.
Yeah, Neither is the embargo, Actually. Very good questions. Please use them
on the first one
on the first cat's
question
just to say,
Well, look normally,
at least in the
case, most of the pledges we receive are honoured eventually.
But it is true. Following things are true.
It may not apply to all other organisations.
It does not apply to all donors. Some are a bit
less diligent than others
and it takes
a longer time than before. Partly
a lot, because
there are so many strings attached to this
to this contribution. You know, I remember a time
Allow me to remember back then a time when there was much more flexibility.
Flexibility is key.
When you deal with a situation like Sudan, you have to move around.
You have to be able to use for different purposes.
And when you deal with multi crisis, you have to be able to say OK, today Sudan is fine.
I need to put the money in Congo. You know, this is not
to misuse funds. This is to use them where it is most urgently needed.
We are losing that big time. We're losing that flexibility.
You know, that is even worse than pledges that are slow.
This what is called in this language you know it because you are in Geneva,
ear marking terrible word translated for people who don't
than earmarking. But it's really inflexible money earmark money.
And it's like this and we get more and more negative earmarking. You cannot do this.
You cannot do that. This is very serious. We cannot.
Humanitarians should be given the trust
to use the money where they see fit.
And, of course,
then we will put in place all the control mechanism
that we can put in place to give guarantees.
We want donors to tell their taxpayers that the money is well used clearly.
So we will do that. But please, please
help us make a pitch for more flexibility because this is really tying our hands
in a manner that does not allow us to work as well as we could.
And
the other question
yeah, yeah, that's a great question.
Um, first of all, I stated the obvious that I stated so many times,
especially after my last visit there in January.
Please, let's not forget that beyond
the politics
and the military aspect of this terrible crisis that are filling
the headlines, understandably,
there is a human impact that was very visible in Europe,
in particular at the beginning, because all the refugees
streamed into the in into
our countries here,
but has been a bit lost since because now the main impact is in Ukraine itself.
This terrible bombings, destruction of power,
infrastructure
of houses, of civilian housing is causing so much hardship.
And when you go there,
you see and you know a lot of the people that are left
in those parts of Ukraine are elderly people or very vulnerable people,
and it's heartbreaking to have to see them flee in the middle of winter.
You know how cold it is, there etc.
Etc.
So that human aspect is still there.
So there is still a humanitarian
operation that needs to be carried out.
You know, no matter
how fast or not fast, the political process moves.
And then I think, and this is perhaps more the question which is very important. I
think it's important that Europe in particular,
thinks about refugees and solutions for refugees.
I know that you may say the fighting is still going on. I just said myself,
displacement is still happening,
but hopefully at some point, if these efforts are meant to bring peace.
There will be an opportunity for people to go back.
It is very important that there are plans in place to do it correctly,
you know, there is. It's not just the material support for people going back.
It is also to help them reintegrating communities that have
gone through a lot through the war since they left.
So, you know, bringing back people that have left to a zone of war
and ensuring
the social cohesion of this reconstituted community requires investments.
I have seen it myself already because some people are going back.
It requires investments.
So I hope that there will be in these efforts that are being planned also
a dimension which is not just humanitarian
but specifically targeted at displaced and refugees.
Thank you, High Commissioner. And we have, unfortunately run out of time.
So we'd like to thank you all for joining us here today.
And, uh, and as I mentioned,
feel free to get in touch with us regarding any questions on the briefing.
Um, but thank you.
And, uh, we look forward to seeing you again soon,
and we'd like to thank our guests for joining us.
Thank you. And goodbye.