The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UNHCR Virtual Press Conference 27 January 2021
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1:03:43
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MP4
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838.1 MB
SHOTLIST OF THE EDITED STORY
CLIP Vincent Cochetel, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation (man, English):
00 :00
Our strategy covers 25 countries that are related to those mixed movements of refugees and migrants. We may not be able to stop dangerous journeys, but we do not believe in their inevitability. It is almost too late for us to intervene when people arrive in Libya or in the Western Sahara. Investment in better services, in protection, must take place along the route, not just in coastal states.”
CLIP Vincent Cochetel, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation (man, English):
00 :31
“How do we intend to spend the money? Well, access to livelihoods. You, people need jobs. Many lost their jobs during the COVID. Many were surviving already on the informal sectors of the economy. They don’t need much, but they need a little to get back on their feet, because we don’t know whether the loss of jobs is going to be an additional trigger for them in terms of mobility, and in what direction. So it’s important to stabilize those populations.”
CLIP Vincent Cochetel, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation (man, English):
00 :59
“Cash, livelihoods, access to education, access to vocational training. These are the top priorities. And then we have to work on the legal pathways, even in a time of COVID.”
CLIP Alessandra Morelli, UNHCR Representative in Niger (woman, English):
01 :10
“Niger for the past three years has become the first port of freedom, as I always define, for many of the persons of concern to UNHCR. So, coming into Niger, reconstituting their identity, helping them elaborate their trauma, and reinjecting their lives in a legal manner into countries which have offered them a place in Europe. I conclude by saying that this exercise of solidarity, this gesture of care, which brings back to life, needs to be maintained in its fluidity, even in situations like COVID. At this time, the situation has slowed down. Countries have a little bit in Europe closed down. And I do have a group of people -- quite: 1,000 of them -- stuck at this moment in Niger, and that needs to be taken care of, supported and certainly given them the hope that nothing has been lost because of COVID.”
CLIP Alessandra Morelli, UNHCR Representative in Niger (woman, English):
02 :30
“We have several women that delivered their babies here that are the consequence of a rape. Several. And it’s way too much. We have people who have shown us signs of violence all along their body. So basically, what we do, this is not just a logistical exercise, of evacuating people from a detention center to a free country. It’s really regaining that sense of humanity.”
CLIP Jean-Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR Representative in Libya (man, English):
03 :04
“Be they refugees or economic migrants, the overwhelming majority do not intend to cross the Mediterranean. They are in Libya, as a rich oil country, trying to make a living, send back remittances to their families. But they are struggling because of the war that has affected this country, that is just over. And because of the COVID pandemic that has hit very hard on their livelihood opportunities, this being already precarious jobs. So many of these people, asylum seekers and refugees, became extremely, extremely vulnerable. The risk is that some of them resort to negative coping mechanisms, such as prostitution or child labor, early marriage, or that out of despair, they may be tempted or resort to dangerous journeys and irregular movements acros the Mediterannean."
B-Roll
TRIQ AL SIKKA DETENTION CENTRE, TRIPOLI, LIBYA, 18 JUNE 2018
04:05 VAR of children inside detention centre (section for women and children) playing football
04 :28 VAR of women outside in detention center
04 :45 WS detention center (section for women for children)
04 :51 MS of women on their mattresses inside the sleeping quarters of the detention centre
04:57 CU of injured women (with faced covered by scarf) lying down in detention centre
05 :05 MS more women inside sleeping. Quarters
PORT OF TRIPOLI, LIBYA, 18 JUNE 2018
05:10 Various of wide of Sea
MEDITERRANEAN SEA, SOUTH OF ITALY, 22 AUGUST, 2017
05 :19 Various shots refugees on board of the Italian Coast Guard ship while it’s sailing back to Sicily.
06 :05 Wide of Sea and Italian coast
AGADEZ, NIGER, 28-29 JULY 2017
06 :12 Wide of traffic in Agadez streets
06 :16 Wide of Agadez and desert
06 :22 Medium of same
06:28 Wide of Agadez Mosque
06:35 Medium of Agadez street and traffic
06:42 Wide of desert in Agadez
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
UNHCR’s strategy and appeal for the Western and Central Mediterranean Sea, “Working on Alternatives to Dangerous Journeys for Refugees”, can be viewed and downloaded at this link.
In its 2021 strategic action plan and related funding appeal, UNHCR said the international community must do more to save lives of refugees taking risky routes towards the Mediterranean. The UN Refugee Agency cited concerns about escalating conflict and displacement in the Sahel, new displacement in the East and Horn of Africa, increased sea arrivals to the Canary Islands and no less than 1,064 deaths recorded in the Central and Western Mediterranean in 2020 alone. Offering safe and viable alternatives to the perilous journeys marred by abuse and deaths is the critical priority.
Violence in the Sahel has now forced an estimated 2.9 million people to flee. With no prospects for peace and stability in the region, further displacement is highly likely. Facing protracted displacement, dire conditions in neighbouring host countries where they sought shelter, the continued economic impact of the COVID pandemic and a lack of viable alternatives, many continue to attempt risky sea journeys to Europe. Risks of trafficking and abuses, such as kidnap for ransom, forced labour, sexual servitude and gender-based violence at the hands of traffickers and gangs, are very likely to continue.
UNHCR’s strategy seeks to increase outreach, identification and assistance to refugees along the route, as well as enhance access to education and livelihoods in countries of asylum. Priority is also given to protection assessments for those in remote locations, and to increased cash-based assistance to vulnerable refugees in urban settings.
To mitigate the resort to dangerous journeys on land and sea, UNHCR is appealing to States to strengthen safe and legal pathways for refugees, including through family reunification, and by enhancing the use of the two Emergency Transit Mechanisms in Rwanda and Niger for those evacuated from Libya so as to facilitate solutions. In response to reported abuses, UNHCR also aims to broaden the support and services for survivors and facilitate better access to justice. Additional efforts to inform and alert populations on the move about the risks of onward movements and services available locally will be also ramped up.
Teleprompter
As I see, it is now 1030.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the UNHCR virtual Press Briefing on the subject of the launch of the UNHCRS Strategic Action Plan and the appeal for support and protection for refugees en route towards the Western and Central Mediterranean.
The focus of this briefing will be entirely on this subject.
We will not be taking questions on the issues outside this this matter and this theme.
I hope you have all received the press release which we have shared with all of you yesterday together with the with the media advisory.
And to complement today's launch and the release of the appeal, we have three key speakers.
That is Mr Vansant Koshtel, who is the UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean.
We also have Mrs Alessandra Morelli, who is the UNHCR representative in Niger.
And we also have Mr Jean Paul Cavallieri, who's the Chief of UNHCR mission in Libya.
Mr Koshtel is joining us from Tunisia, Mrs Morelli from NYAME and Jean Paul Cavalieri is joining us from Tripoli in Libya.
After the after the opening remarks by the three speakers, we will move to questions.
We are kindly ask you to raise your hands when you want to ask a question and then the colleagues from the UNTV will unmute your microphone.
Kindly introduce yourselves as well as state the agency or the newspaper or the broadcaster you work for and and indicate to whom your question is directed to.
These are just a few of the ground rules.
We have about 45 minutes.
We hope we can cover all of the questions and interest you you might have.
I would kindly ask now if the microphone for Mr Vassan Kirstell can be opened.
Thank you.
OK, good morning, everyone and thank you for your interest for this press briefing.
As today we are launching our updated strategy for the Central and Western Mediterranean and an appeal to donor in general.
I'd like to say that mixed movement by land on by CF continued during COVID and will continue in 2021.
The fear of COVID is not a driver for movements per SE.
Recent development dramatic events in Darfur, in the Central African Republic, in the Ethiopia conflict, in Tigraya or in Niger have led to significant forced displacement.
But there is no evidence at this stage that additional dangerous movements are taking place for the from the areas where those people have sought protection.
But this could change if we do not provide assistance to the people where they are.
The socio economic impact of COVID, as you know, in particular the lust of livelihood, often coupled with eviction from shelter, clearly triggered some additional sea movement from some countries of origin of migrants.
That's particularly the case of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Senegal.
And for refugees also living mainly North African countries, movement by sea increase from Algeria and Tunisia substantially on to a lesser extent from Libya, the increase overall by 141% in 2020.
And if I give you the the figure for Algeria, it's plus 209, Tunisia plus 310 and Libya plus 58%.
The total for the Central Mediterranean route is about 70,650 people who have tried to leave by sea.
In 2020, 36,000 managed to cross.
That means one person out of two more or less managed to cross.
This is a small number when you compare it to the number of arrival in Sudan from Ethiopia in two months, which is about 60,000 refugee.
So in other words, the situation is manageable if it is managed.
The subtitle of our strategy that we are releasing today is self-explanatory.
We we would like to work more effectively on alternative to those dangerous journey.
There shouldn't be any fatalism about that and we need to develop the asylum capacity of several countries.
I think we might have a technical problem with Vansan.
Can you NTV confirm whether we have lost the signal from Vansan?
Yes, we lost Vansan for the time being.
OK, while we wait for Vansan to reconnect, can we move to Alessandra?
Enrico, can you unmute Alessandra Morales microphone?
Sandra, please open your mic.
Alessandra, do you hear me?
You need to open your mic.
Thank you.
You are unmuted, Alessandra.
So over to you now.
In the meantime, we will try to reconnect with Vasa.
OK.
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Good.
Good morning to everybody from Niame, from Niger.
So I will try and give you the prospective from this other side, from the Sahel, from the Sahel side, from the Niger side.
I think you're all following the latest situation of the country as a whole, a country that is basically squeezed in between movements of the African jihadism in the Central Sahel and the Boko Haram in the South, in the Diffa region, impacting the basing of the Lake Chad area.
What I always say, these areas impacted by asymmetric warfare movements continue to demonstrate the capacity of the extremist groups to hit also inside Niger.
But Niger, despite this fragile security situation, has never closed its borders to people fleeing war and persecution in northern Nigeria and western Nigeria as well through the expansion as well as situation in the central Sahel, Mali and Burkina Faso.
As you know, as Sahel inflates, as I said several Times Now, Niger is also looking at what the appeal rightly so highlights, looks at Algeria and looks also at Libya with regards to the support Niger is giving to the dramatic situation that Libya, our colleagues in Libya also are facing with regards to the tension.
Niger for the past three years has become the first port of freedom as I always define for many of the persons of concern to UNHCR.
So coming in Tunisia, reconstituting their their identity, helping them elaborate their trauma and reinjecting their lives in the legal manner into countries that have offered their places in Europe.
I conclude by saying that this exercise, this exercise of solidarity, this, this gesture of care which brings back to life needs to be maintained in its fluidity even in situations like COVID at this time.
But this time the situation has slowed down.
Countries have a little bit in Europe closed down.
And I do have a group of people, quite 1000 of them stuck at this moment in Niger and that needs to be taken care of, supported and certainly given them the hope that nothing has been lost because of COVID.
The only reality, and I stop here, that is maintaining it's human humanity even through crisis is the humanitarian corridors and particularly the ones that we are developing with Italy in this particular time.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
I see Vansan was able to rejoin us, so I'm asking Enrico to unmute.
Vansan.
Thank you very much.
Vansan, your microphone is open.
My apologies.
Internet is jumpy this morning.
I think that you lost me at a time where I was explaining that the subtitle of our updated strategy self-explanatory.
We want to work more effectively on alternative to dangerous journey.
There should be no fatalism here and we need to develop the asylum capacity of several countries, including in North Africa where legal framework for refugee remain in existence for many decades after they have ratified international refugee instrument.
Our strategy is based on data, it's also evidence based, given the protection risk that we are aware of on the routes leading to Libya, to Morocco, to Egypt and it's also route base.
We want to make sure that no one could say that they didn't know the risk that they would be confronted to on the road leading to Libya, to Algeria, to Egypt and Morocco.
Yet there are clear gaps in programme and if those gaps were addressed they would have a serious stabilising effect on the people.
We can talk about education, about family reunion, on order, legal pathways, but also cash based assistance.
I mean, we discover when updating our strategy that in particular in North Africa, you know, we are able only to assist with cash assistance 10 to 15% of the refugee living in those countries and that's valid for all North African countries.
We are also a bit concerned that that we are hearing in different capital cities still the same song.
You know, we should defeat the business model of the human trafficker.
Yes, this is true, but in reality, on the ground it does not translate much more than on prevention of irregular migration.
Very little is done to protect victim of trafficking, to improve service for them and to use their testimonies in combating the prevailing impunity for many known human trafficker.
Our strategy covers 25 countries that are related to those mixed movement of refugees and migrant.
We may not be able to stop dangerous journey, but we do not believe in their inevitability.
It is almost too late for us to intervene when people arrive in Libya or in the western Sara.
Investment in better services on in protection must take place along the route on not only in coastal states.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Francois.
We will now go to Tripoli to Jean Paul Cavalieri.
I kindly ask that his microphone is now opened.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, greetings from Tripoli.
Libya is and remains a destination country for refugees and for economic migrants.
They are here in this country about 44,000 Zanos and refugees registered with the UNSCR and another 600,000 economic migrants.
Refugees who are in Libya, you know, are people who have fled violence, persecution, armed conflict in the Middle East or in sub-Saharan Africa.
But be they refugees or academic migrants, the overwhelming majority do not intend to cross the Mediterranean.
They are in Libya as a rich oil country to try and get a living, make a living, send back remittances to their families.
But they are struggling because of the war that has affected this country that is just over and because of the COVID pandemic that has hit very hard on their livelihood opportunities.
You know, this being already precarious jobs.
So many of these people, Balaam seekers and refugees became extremely, extremely vulnerable.
The risk is that some of them, they resort to negative coping mechanisms such as prostitution or child labour, early marriage, or that out of despair they may be tempted or resort to dangerous journeys and, you know, irregular movements across the Mediterranean.
Therefore, it's critical for UNCR, for the international community, for partners to step up humanitarian assistance in urban settings when people leave, that they can sustain themselves, so to say, and that we target the more venerable to us to, you know, preserve them from diving into dangerous copying mechanisms.
We also have to build on the peace process.
There is a peace process in media that is driven by the UN mission here and we have to build in that, in supporting the Libyan authorities to establish a proper, proper migration management system that is in accordance with the human rights standards, international standards.
The the end of the war, excuse me, the end of the war has freed some resources.
There is no more more attention, more resources on the side of the Libyan authorities to fight against human trafficking and smuggling and some laudable, you know, efforts have been conducted already and some successes had, you know, had been met by the lead authorities in in harvesting, dismantling some of these, you know, human trafficking greens.
This efforts must continue.
But it is critical for the international community to broadly provide its support to this fight in Libya with a view to, you know, protect people who are victims of these criminal activities.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Jean.
Paul, we are now opening the floor for questions.
Please raise your hand or feel free also to put your questions in the chat.
I believe we have Lisa Schlein from VOA.
So Enrique, kindly open the the microphone for Lisa.
Hi, Andre.
I think I'm unmuted.
Yes, you are.
Good morning, Lisa.
Good.
Morning, nice to see you.
The subject is not so nice.
However, I do have a few questions.
First, if you could, perhaps it's you, Van San, or whoever wishes to speak.
This is open to everyone.
If you could describe the kinds of risks that are encountered by the refugees who are fleeing across the Sahara and I suppose across the Mediterranean Sea.
And you gave a number of over 1000 refugees, I believe, who have lost their lives in 2020 fleeing persecution and violence.
Is, is this both by land and sea and is this an accurate number or they're just many?
Is it is it really quite impossible to know how many people truly have lost their lives?
And then lastly, in, in terms of Libya, you, you have had problems consistently about people who have fled across this, tried to flee across the Mediterranean to Italy or wherever being brought back by the the coastal people officers and sent to detention centres.
Is this still occurring and what is what is your solution if there is one to this?
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I think perhaps the first part of the question could be addressed by Vansan, second part on Libya by by Jean Paul.
So over to Vansan first, just very quickly.
Thank you, Lisa for your question.
So the, the, the, the, the main risk the people face is that, you know, they are, it's a risk of extortion on the journey by land.
Smugglers very quickly tend to become trafficker and there is a degree of coercion.
We heard from many women that they have experienced **** several time along the route.
So not even in Libya, but in many countries before reaching Libya or or the Western Sahara.
So risk of extortion, risk of labour exploitation, sexual exploitation, ****, unjust ******.
Some people are just abandoned in the desert in total neglect without food on the water.
We were able to verify through different sources that about 1800 people have died on their land journey leading to the coastal countries.
This is only the visible tip of the iceberg.
We have no way of being able to collect data on the missing people.
We have sometime relatives of people that have gone missing that are approaching our offices or our partners offices and we are not able to provide that information.
We don't know whether people have gone missing and and there is no comprehensive cross-border system to track down that those numbers.
Over to you, Jean Paul, if we can unmute Jean Paul.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you for your question.
Yes, you know the they are now about when I came here a year and a half ago, there were about 5000 detained migrants and refugees in Libya in official detention centres, not talking about those kept in the hung garden warehouses by human traffickers.
And 5000 and now it's just about 1000 migrants and Islam seekers and out of them 200 are asylum seekers.
That is people of concern to next year.
It's important to realise that the very large majority of people who are in detention are people who have been intercepted at sea or rescued at sea.
And therefore, it's also very important to focus on the very large majority who are urban refugees to make sure that they are not forced or you know, or, or going to the despair and, and take that because this is where the the most dangerous part starts with the risk of being therefore intercepted and brought back to detention.
So what are we doing for those who are in detention?
First of all, we are doing a number of things.
There is an immediate humanitarian response, so to say, which is about visiting people, providing life savings, you know, assistance such as medical assistance, you know, with our partners, you know, basic items, a lot of hygiene interventions in the time of COVID and a lot of advocacy for the government to seek the release of these people into urban settings where UNSCR and partners, we start to save, you know, focus assistance to make sure that they can sustain themselves and tell your authorities.
You see the reason like that If if people will, you know, be able to receive assistance and maintain themselves in urban settings.
We also have for those who are most at risk have been, you know almost vulnerable or so as you know how the programme of resettlement abroad or humanitarian evacuation in in Asia with Alessandra managing the emergency transit mechanism in Asia.
But this is lifeline for the most vulnerable refugees.
But it remains remains, you know solution that is only available for minority of persons.
800 last year, 2400 in 2019 on the 800 last year because of your closure of space and so on.
And then we also have, you know, again to look at the medium term, there is no fatality as Jensen used to say.
We have to also to look at remedies at the institutional level.
And you know now there is a building process.
So that's under this building process, there is a human rights track that is, and the human rights track that is looking at arbitrary detention and how to resolve that.
So to say that's, that's, you know, issue.
And the issue of detention of arbitrary detention in, in Libya is has to do with the fact that every country in the world, you know, is managing migration.
And that can include, you know, retention of people if they if they breach migration, you know, laws, etcetera.
The problem in Libya is that it's arbitrary in the sense that there is no judicial review.
So there is no judge who verifies the detention decision.
That is why it can become indefinite and then detention condition because some of the centres may be outsourced or you know to to a mini shadow operator that needs to interior and that may lose the report and become so to say, you know, may commit, you know, human rights abuses.
That's why we need to also tackle this question at the institutional level to a dialogue and seeking the commitment of the to release of Libya, to commit and to abide to UNFR standard or to international standards.
And with the hope that the peace, you know, situation will allow for this type of discussion that is already taking place.
But obviously, we are looking at the medium term.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And I believe Alessandra wants to make just a brief contribution to your responses.
So if we can open Alexandra's mic, Alessandra, you're on mute.
Thank you.
Very much a contribution that confirms basically what Vincent and Jean Paul says have just said.
The contribution is basically we meet the people on this side, we meet the people that are evacuated.
We don't, we don't just meet the people, we are with the people and we listen to their stories and their stories become for us.
The reason why we have developed a type of protection assistance that is a protection assistant that is based very much on psychosocial.
So the the the issues related to extortion issues to a related related to ****.
We had several women that delivered their babies here that are the consequence of a **** several and and it's way too much.
We have people that have shown us signs of violence all along their body.
So basically what we do, this is not just a logistic exercise of evacuating people from a detention centre to to a free country is really regaining that sense of humanity and regaining that identity and link the here of Niger and they're of a country and the future that is welcoming them.
So I can only confirm as a direct testimony of what Vincent and Jean Paul just said.
So we complete and we try from here to re engage.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
We're now moving to the next question.
It's from Peter Kenny.
If Peter's microphone can be opened.
Yeah, good.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my question.
My name is Peter Kenny.
I'm a freelance journalist, but I also work for Anadolu.
I would like to know from any of the speakers, we're always here about two factors in the movement of people.
One is people smugglers and two is they are fleeing armed insurrection or terrorism in their areas.
Is there any interlinkage with the all these groups?
Because if they're in a certain region of Africa, is there any linkage between the groups that they are fleeing?
Because if there is, you know, I think it's easier to explain people's movement if we know them.
And also with the people smugglers, is there any interlinkage?
Is there some big group?
Because you know, when journalists just refer to people smugglers and fleeing armed insurrection, it, it, it doesn't mean that much to the story.
So the better you can explain what they are fleeing from.
And if there is some interlinkage, it helps to explain the story better if you understand what I mean thinking.
Thank you very much.
Vincent.
Would you like to comment on this, Alessandra?
Yes, I mean, what we there is what we know and what we don't know what we know.
Definitely in a country like Libya, we know that some of the human traffickers are protected by some militias.
So they benefit from some form of protection by those who are de facto in control of a certain territory in Libya.
So there is a clear linkage there in terms of the trafficker on some of the militias.
Now for the rest of the route, it's more difficult to say.
We've, we've noticed recently that in Mali, some of the extremist groups that control part of north of Mali are involved in extortion activities.
They are not themselves moving people, but they are taxing the movement of people.
That means they derive financial benefit from the trade of of human mobility.
It is not necessarily the main business portfolio, if I may say, but they are getting reinvolved into into into this business by collecting tax from the people trying to go to Algeria or go to Niger.
Over to you.
Thank you very much.
Once any of other speakers wants to add any Alessandra over to you.
Yes, thank you very much.
Well, I can, it's not prepared, but I can only continue to confirm what, what Vincent says because I mean the, the, the, the confirmation comes from the, the, the, the being in between the mist of exactly, exactly what is being asked.
So, Peter, what do people flee in general?
I can tell you from what I see in Niger, when they're hosted in Niger, they flee an extreme, violent, coordinated and well synchronised and prepared extremist attacks directly in the villages.
When I look at what is happening in the central Sahel in flames and what is happening also in the form of mafia style banditism away from the the typical Borno state of Boko Haram extending now also in other states in in northwest Nigeria, I can tell you that they are fleeing almost direct attack on villages.
Why?
Because these villages decide not to undergo what Vincent just said, this continuous head hammering for tax collection, extortion and kind of revenue that they gain out of kidnapping, out of animal also kidnapping, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
We were studying a few days ago really how jihadism and how is also getting its income generation in that sense.
So the smuggling network is a network and everything that is criminal in to operate needs the the OK and the green light for other realities that are controlling the routes etcetera.
So everything can be interconnected, is interconnected and and creates the danger that Vincent and Paul and Jean Paul also described earlier.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
I believe Jean Paul wants to add a few words.
So if we can open his microphone.
Yes, just a couple of words.
Just a couple of words to add what was said.
I mean, as far as Lydia is concerned and what stories we, we hear from, from refugees in detention or in, you know, in urban settings, obviously, you know, refugees from the Middle East, basically conflict, protected conflict, violence, terrorism, lack of protection by, by some of these, you know, countries that are struggling to, to, you know, to rebuild the, the state when it comes to sub-Saharan Africa.
It's also a mix of both, you know, armed conflict.
Look at places like Somalia, South Sudan, etcetera, and countries that have, you know, that are massively violating the human rights.
But I would say we also see a lot of people who turn to NCR and flee, you know, just bleeding out of core governance.
They may not be refugees.
They come to us and we see many of them.
We would qualify them as migrants because they don't feel persecution, they don't feel armed conflict.
And they turn to us because they say, you know, this is my story, can you help me?
And then we may refer them to other, you know, sister agencies such as IUM or the NGOs.
But they, the stories that tell us, you know, also tell a lot about the poor government in these countries, some of which are not necessarily poor countries, but which where the richness is not properly, you know, shared among the population that is creating pockets of poverty that makes people looking at at exciting themselves.
And these people are often very upset themselves at the authorities in their countries or originally the elite in these countries where they feel that, you know, in.
They should have a chance to contribute to the economic life of the country that you know, should be able to have sufficient wealth for its citizens.
But it's not the case.
You know, they and they were left out, disenfranchised and left.
So there is, you know, when there is also an issue of governance in countries of OG that is not necessarily, you know, where under the mandate of unisia.
But we witness that a lot because a lot of migrants don't unisia in social help that we cannot help because of our mandate.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Jean Paul.
We also have a few follow up questions, but we will first go to Jacopo Brigatzi.
He's covering this press conference for Politico.
I would ask that Jacopo's microphone is open now.
Thanks.
I hope that you can hear me.
It's Jacopo Baragazzi from Politico here in Brussels.
Thanks for organising this.
I have a question for Vincent.
When it before he said that the member states are not doing enough to combat traffickers and I was wondering whether Vincent can elaborate a bit on that.
What else can the EU do to be more effective in combating the the, the, the smugglers after we know the names, we know that they are, but they still keep on operating.
So what else can be done?
And then it's a slightly different subject, but I hope that one of you can answer me.
The question is on vaccines.
Here in Europe, we are talking about vaccines for COVID all the time.
And we start, I think in seeing the risk that in the next month, if the migrants will arrive here, we won't be vaccinated.
This could be exploited as a team by the far right.
And so I was wondering whether UNICER is working also in this field in, in trying to get refugees vaccinated.
I mean I understand for them being there are no vaccines even.
For.
Here in Europe.
So again, it's a problem for the next weeks and months I'm sure, but my question is whether you're planning something also in this field.
Thanks.
First over to Vincent.
Well, thank you the the the first question, I think it's easy answer and complex answer.
I think states, in particular in Europe, I mean, are fighting human trafficking on the European soil when they think that they have a a legal jurisdiction.
But when the trafficking incident has taken place across the Mediterranean, somehow it's no longer their business or they feel that they are not able to do anything to that would lead to the prosecution of the people involved.
Why that?
Because there's not enough resources to follow the money channels where the money goes.
You know, people are not keeping that money necessarily in Libya, in Sudan or in some other places.
So you need to follow the money.
Like if it was terrorism or drug trafficking, you need to to trust a bit more the African countries.
There is a there is a lack of understanding for the realities that they are facing.
There is reluctance by many European countries or European agencies to share information.
Sometime for legal reason, they don't even share information that could be actionable by some African countries.
But you see some of them are really determined to fight trafficking.
It's been a recent progress in Libya.
There is a constant attention to the topic in Sudan.
It's not enough, but we need to capacitate the the authorities and the last element is the victim themself.
It seems that sometime the European countries have only one solution in mind, Victim of trafficking, Yes, maybe should be treated medically and all that.
But then she should they should be returned home irrespective of the risk they may be able to face there.
Let's listen what they have to say.
Their testimony can be very useful uncovering the mechanism on all the actors involved in in human trafficking.
On the issue of vaccination.
I mean the UN shares policy on on plea to the states is to make sure that refugee are included.
They should not be prioritised vis a vis the national, but they should benefit in the same, in the same condition that the nationals of the of the host countries.
But as you said, there is a serious problem in many African countries just to get the vaccine and to have them included is going to be a challenge.
But some countries, for instance, in the Middle East, like Jordan has recently announced that, you know, refugee should be included.
And that's what we are pushing for.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Masa.
And I invite Jacopo to follow up with us on anything else that might interest him on the issue of vaccinations.
We'll be happy to help on those questions.
We have a follow up question from Peter.
So I will ask Enrique if Peter's microphone can be open.
Yes.
So there isn't a connection we've heard in like in the in in the western part of Africa in Nigeria region to Boko Haram and jihadists is there you know we we never hear the word Islamic State these days which is a declared a terrorist group by the UN.
Is there any inter linkage in all these countries with the Islamic State or are these all just geographically isolated terrorist movements that sympathise with Islamic State?
Thank you.
To whom the question is directed.
Maybe Alessandra wants to make a few comments on that.
Over to you, Alessandra.
If we can open Alessandra's microphone, you're unmuted now.
Yes, yes, thank you.
Thank you very much for the floor.
Thank you, Thank you, Peter.
Again, I would define the conflict in the central Sahel, A fractionalised conflict at this stage.
And when you define a conflict fractionalised, it already tells you that is going to be a long way to find stabilisation and peace.
So we are clear there, at least from a unhr point of view with our partners analysing the conflict.
We know that it's going to be a marathon, it's going to be a long run on top of it.
It's a multi dimension conflict.
There are a lot of vacuums still that have to be filled from different states that are around.
So the geographical area that you have described that can go from northern, northern Nigeria all the way all the way to northern Mali passing through Niger that is squeezed in between is 2 lungs.
The Niger 2 lungs are completely suffocated from these external impacts that are certainly destabilising the the border areas and villages of of Niger.
Now, is there an interlinkage?
If I say it's fractionalised, I think we can agree that there are many actors on the ground, extremist actors on the ground, equally international actors as well.
What we see happening here right now is that these actors are Al Qaeda for the greatest Sahara, the Janine parts of ISIS as well that they are in dialogue.
Sometimes they fight each other while in wait.
While I come from the Somali operation as well in my past, I could see there some alliances were formed.
Sometimes they were moving in connection.
While here in the central Sahel, we see sometimes that these, these different actors, they, they, they tend and to enter into, into, into head to head fights to, to, to gain a certain type of, you know, of, of visibility and also conquering certain parts of the territory.
This is what makes this crisis in the Sahel extremely vulnerable and extremely complex to analyse.
On the Boko Haram front, I would say Boko Haram just takes opportunity to expand the vacuum that we see in Northwest Nigeria in the Katsina, Zamfara and in the Sokoto state with the kidnapping recently of the schools of the 300 boys and girls.
If you remember that was highlighted also for from UNHCR side several weeks ago and claimed by Boko Haram.
Of course, me who is watching from the other side because I'm welcoming refugees from those areas in into Maradi.
I is extremely concerned of this opportunity and opportunistic situations created by vacuums.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
I believe we can move on.
We have a quick follow up question from Lisa and then we'll go to Isabel Sacco from FA and Veronica from Marai.
But first, over to Lisa.
Thanks, Andre.
Yes, you are appealing for 100, $1,000,000.
That's pretty good amount of cash.
How are you planning to use it in the most efficacious way?
You want to protect the refugees, you want to support them.
So if you could just highlight the main points of how you're going to be using this money?
Thank you.
The question is for who would like to answer this question.
Vanson, your mic is open.
Yes, thank you.
On the scale of things, 100 million for 25 countries is not such a big amount of money.
I mean, I'm aware that one African country recently received more than €30 million just for return of migrants on with a figure of 3000 people.
So it's not on the scale of seeing so much money because it has to be spread along the routes, not just the central western Mediterranean, but also those W African countries that are creating pressure in terms of sea departure to the Canary Island where we need to do much better in terms of services available to them.
How do we intend to spend the money?
Well, access to livelihood, you know, people need job.
Many have got lost their job during the COVID.
Many were surviving already on the informal sectors of the economy.
They don't need much, but they need a little to get back on their feet because we don't know whether the loss of job is going to be an additional trigger for them in term of mobility and in what direction.
So it's important to stabilise those population where they are.
Some of them are internally displaced, some others have found protection in the neighbouring states.
They'd like to stay in that neighbouring states, but will they be able to remain in that neighbouring state?
So cash, livelihoods, access to education, access to vocational training, these are the top priorities.
And then we have to work on the legal pathways.
Even in time of COVID, many of them have got relatives, not just in Europe, in the US, in Australia, in Canada, in various countries.
Family, Iranian procedure are extremely complex.
It's a right under international law, yet many people don't have access to that, right.
When you look at the demographics of sea departure to Europe last year, only 8% of them are women.
Women don't have the same access to international protection.
While they suffer already more ***** on the route and they are not able to leave, they don't have the same access to protection.
We need to make sure those legal pathways are available to them and on that some of them can be afforded the protection they deserve elsewhere because they can't stay where they are.
So this is where we would like to spend the money, cash, education, livelihoods in general, vocational training, family, Iranian to the best extent possible on communication with communities.
We need to engage digitally and by remote because it's becoming very difficult for humanitarian workers, especially in the sale, but in other places also to work.
Look at our access problem in some parts of Ethiopia today.
That's that's a real challenge.
South of Algeria, northwest of Sudan, there are many places that are very critical to this mixed movement where UNH here on many of its partner do not have access anymore.
So we'd like to enhance the outreach so people do not feel compelled to leave, but get access to basic services where they are.
Thank you for your question.
Thank you very much.
We still have some time.
Perhaps we can go for another 10-15 minutes.
We'll go first to FA.
Isabel, over to you.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you.
I would, I would like to go back to the, the impact of the jihadism and extremist presence in, in the region and how it encouraged in some way this migration situation problem.
And I would like to, to understand, because you said that we have to, to, to follow the money.
And So what can the international community do to stop or to try to improve the situation, to stop these groups, to take advantage of the situation of these people and to to make them to oblige them to, to, to leave their, their communities?
This is one question.
And I would like to know also on, on the trend that we have observed in the last last year on the inflow or to through the, through the West Mediterranean and, and through the also through the route through the Canary Islands.
I do think that this trend will follow this year.
And and why?
Thank you.
And the questions are for Vanson or somebody else.
Isabel, maybe we start with Vanson and then we'll see if there are any other contributions.
Yeah.
Well the the activities of some of those extremist group in particular in the sale, yes, contribute to forced displacement on sometime to external displacement, meaning displacement outside the country of origin of the people.
We've seen gradually, you know terrorist activities in Mali moving from north Mali to central Mali.
Now many, many region of central Mali are affected by this destabilisation, destabilisation by extremist group.
We haven't seen people in a region called the Caius, which is normally more on economic migration region in Mali, now being affected by terrorist attacked, banditry, lawlessness.
So yes, those groups destabilise and that destabilisation is putting more people on the road to exile.
And it's no surprise to me that a bit over 20% of the arrival in the Canary Island today are Malians.
They then, I mean, you may have some mimic economic migrants among them, but it's really important that we have quality procedures to determine who is who because I'm, I'm pretty sure that many of them are fleeing from those areas that are today totally unsafe.
Yes.
What could be done about these groups?
Well, first of all, we need to look at the older linkages.
You know, when you take a country like Mali, it's quite clear that some of the militias, some of those sorry, extremist group that control part of north Mali, you know, are receiving and dealing with drugs.
Where is the drug coming from?
Everybody knows where the drug channels lead to.
If today the militias that are manning those checkpoints that are extorting people, ****** woman trying to go to Niger on on Mali, I mean, if you cut the money flows, if you cut the drug trafficking to that area, well, those militias won't be paid.
They they they won't be paid.
They don't have many other source of income.
So you need to have a a holistic approach to combating not just terrorism, but human trafficking and follow the money can be, you know, sometime.
And that's more for the eastern African route leading to Libya.
When people are caught by traffickers, they are forced to record video message on social media that they sent to their relative where they beg for ransom to be paid.
The ransom is not paid in cash.
It's paid errors to the informal system.
But often, you know, it's paid to a bank account and that information is is public.
It doesn't stay live for a long time.
After a few days, you know the traces are gone.
So it's important that you have special law enforcement capacity which which is focusing on those big money transfer.
Thank you.
Whether it will continue in the future?
Yes, unfortunately given the scale of the placement in in the sale, it will continue.
In addition, there are many people that have been impoverished because of the measures that were taken that were taken to contain the pandemics in many W African countries.
So you will continue to have I think mixed movement to the Canary Island on to North Africa.
But, of course, countries of origin have also to take the responsibility for that.
They should take back their citizens, those who are only moving for economic reasons.
They have to take them back without any condition, because otherwise the asylum system in Europe cannot function.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mansan.
We will be moving on in the interest of time that we have.
We have now a question from Veronica Fernandez for Rai and then we have two other from Nicolai Nielsen from the EU Observer.
And then we'll go back to Kenny for the last follow up question.
So, Veronica Fernandez, over to you.
Hi, good morning, everybody.
I have two questions.
The first one, it's about refugees to from to cry to Sudan.
I wanted to know more about the assistance and what that what they say about the situation there when they reach Sudan.
That's a question that came up to reading your report.
And another one, I don't know if it's too specific, but I would like to know what kind of assistance during the path, like from when they leave their country until when they get international protection receive people who have to flee their country due to their sexual orientation.
Thank you.
The questions are for whom?
Veronica, if you can indicate.
That's not specifically to a person, just if any could reply.
OK, the themes are a bit outside the the issues we were planning to discuss, but I believe Alessandra wants to say a few words.
Can we unmute Alessandra's microphone?
Yeah, I can answer the LGBTI question, the one on Sudan.
I will leave it to, to my colleagues in Sudan because we're taking feelings, so you need to really get to meet them.
I, I cannot talk in remote for that, but for the LGBTI part linked to the Central Mediterranean route and linked to the mixed movements that Vincent was so well explaining.
We have a specific programme here in Niger.
They are, we identify them from Agades when we have a office in Agades, which is in an office at the heart of the different routes that still continue to, to push people and move less though, but still we can identify people.
Among them is the LGBTI group.
And I have to say that I'm very proud first of all of my colleagues that there is a specific programme and, and really next week 3 LGBTI persons will be departing to Sweden.
So there are also countries that have understood the, the, the, the **** vulnerable protection need LGBTI cases identified.
Need we plea for more countries to open up?
Because so far we have Sweden, we have Canada, we plea for more countries to open up because it is a reality and, and the protection need is, is, is ****.
The type of assistance is just like any other human being because we are all the same human beings and the type of assistance, but the the identification that is specific and that is done in confidence, that is done with all the discretion that is needed not to continue to put people in danger because not every countries have stepped back in understanding the situation.
Thank you very much.
On the situation in Sudan, we have been regularly reporting about that.
As you may have seen, the number of refugees there has now crossed 58,000 people.
There is a continued activity on the ground.
We have opened the second site some weeks ago, beginning of January, moving where?
Where we have been moving people away from the border to the safety of of the sites further, further inland.
And as we have been reporting the we are still asking for full and effective access in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
You can find more information online.
And I also invite you to follow up with us separately and outside this press briefing.
So, Veronica, please feel free to reach out to us on this.
We will go out now to Nicolai Nielsen for the EU Observer.
Yes, hi, thank you.
Thank you for this.
I had two questions.
I was taught well, the International Centre for Migration Policy and Development is saying that the COVID vaccine scarcity in in developing countries will be a driving factor for migrants and refugees as well, on top of everything else.
And I was wondering perhaps Vincent could answer that question if he's if, if he sees that, that there's any sort of evidence to that or if that is indeed something that you agree to agree with.
And then for perhaps Alexandra, could you perhaps inform us about how many of refugees have been resettled from Nigeria to EU member states?
I know you know, a lot of there was there was a programme where people from Libya would then be airlifted to to Nigeria and then then redistribute it to EU member states.
And I was wondering if if that's continuing has stopped, is slowing down, if you can give us some sort of indication on that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Nikolai.
So we'll go first to Vansa.
Yes, a very quick answer, Nicola, I know the, the fear of COVID in itself is not a driver for, for movement.
And the same way, you know, the access or the competition in term of access to the vaccine.
I don't think it's going to be a factor in terms of mobility.
I, I don't believe that I can be totally wrong, but I don't see those dynamics.
Plus we had had some surveys done by one of our partner, the mixed migration centre in West Africa, which clearly indicate that this is not a risk.
There are many other risk in term of movement, but not that one.
Thank you very much Alessandra.
If we can open Alessandra's mic.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you very much.
I, I will pick up from the second question, the evacuation transit mechanism.
This project that we work in very, very close cooperation with my colleague Jean Paula from Libya.
We have at the moment amnesia 633 people that are still awaiting to depart.
The impact of COVID.
Yes, I would say big time.
I would use the word big time.
It is impacting.
The departures are very slow.
Some countries have even stopped at this moment.
And this is creating on the ground frustration among the population that understand and don't understand.
So my teams are extremely involved in guaranteeing closeness awareness, updating them on the situation.
Not always it's easy, but we are maintaining a balance through dialogue, which is constant.
There are a few countries with whom we are in contact, where we are playing really that a time of re engagement is being given to us.
So yes, I would say that the COVID element.
Among all the operations in Asia, and there are quite a few, it has impacted strongly on the resettlement programme.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
And I believe we have time for one last question.
It's the second follow up from Peter.
Kenny, can we open Peter's mic?
Yeah, thanks for taking my follow up.
Actually this is, I would like to ask Vansa about something that you said about drug smugglers.
You said everybody knows who they are and you elaborated a little bit, but who are the the everybody?
Is it the police forces in the countries the people are fleeing from?
Is it the police forces in the countries that people are fleeing to?
Who is the everybody?
Could you elaborate a bit more on that?
Thank you.
Well, OK, thank you.
Well, the agents of persecution are, are, are quite diverse.
I mean we published last summer report with the mixed migration centre, which is a bit country by country where we've interviewed, you know, more than 15,000 people over 18 months.
And they told us when it was the authorities involved in abuses, when it was the traffickers, when it was other third parties involved in in the human rights violation.
So let's say the geography of persecution on ***** is different from 1 country to another.
Now when it comes to drug, well, the the drug going to North Mali as a clear origin, I'm not, I'm not a drug expert.
I'm not going to go into the detail.
There's enough public domain report on that.
We know where the drug come from.
We know the drug is used to pay those extremist group on on all the foot soldiers that they have.
It enables them also to procure, you know, motorbikes, weapons to spread terror in in the sale.
So at some stage ones need to think about, you know, cutting that financial flow from the drug traffic to those groups if you want really to be effective.
There can't be just one military approach on turning a blind eye on that dimension of the problem.
That's all what I want to say.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Masa.
We will close now.
I would just like to remind everybody on the call that the link to the strategy paper and the appeal is available both in the advisory that you have received yesterday as well as in the press release.
It is a very interesting and compelling document.
We hope we will you will you will find it useful.
I would like to thank the UNTV for hosting today's press conference.
I would like to thank the journalists for their turn out and their interest and their excellent questions.
And finally, I'd like to thank to our speakers, Masan Christel, Alessandra Morelli and Jean Paul Cavallieri for taking the time of the busy agenda to spend with us and talk about the the the situation along the western, the routes towards the Western and Central Mediterranean.
Thank you all.