GENEVA: The head of the UN refugee agency warned on Monday that displacement crises in Lebanon and Sudan could worsen, but said tighter border measures were not the solution, calling them ineffective and sometimes unlawful.
Addressing more than 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR’s annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are now displaced around the world by conflicts, persecution, poverty and climate change.
“You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders,” he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.
“We must seek to address the root causes of displacement, and work toward solutions,” he said. “I beg you all that we continue to work — together and with humility — to seize every opportunity to find solutions for refugees.”
Without naming countries, Grandi said initiatives to outsource, externalize or even suspend asylum schemes were in breach of international law, and he offered countries help in finding fair, fast and lawful asylum schemes.
Western governments are under growing domestic pressure to get tougher on asylum seekers and Grandi has previously criticized a plan by the former British government to transfer them to Rwanda.
In the same speech he warned that in Lebanon, where more than one million people have fled their homes due to a growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the situation could worsen further.
“Surely, if airstrikes continue, many more will be displaced and some will also decide to move on to other countries.”
He called for a drastic increase in support for refugees in Sudan’s civil war, saying lack of resources was already driving them across the Mediterranean Sea and even across the Channel to Britain.
“In this lethal equation, something has got to give. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if displacement keeps growing, in numbers but also in geographic spread,” he said.
The UNHCR response to the crisis that aims to help a portion of the more than 11 million people displaced inside Sudan or in neighboring countries is less than 1/3 funded, Grandi said.
The number of displaced people around the world has more than doubled in the past decade.
Grandi, set to serve as high commissioner until Dec. 2025, said the agency’s funding for this year had recently improved due to US support but remained “well below the needs.”
UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen
https://arab.news/yx4bn
UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen
- More than 123 million people displaced around the world
- Continued air strikes set to worsen Lebanon displacement
- Calls for drastic increase in support for Sudanese refugees
Russia says two crew members from US-seized tanker released
- “Two Russian sailors have been released and are on their way home to Russia,” Zakharova said
- Russia announced earlier this month that the US had decided to release the Russian duo
MOSCOW: Moscow said Wednesday two Russian crew members of a tanker seized this month by the United States in the Atlantic had been released and were on their way home.
US authorities took over the Russian-flagged vessel earlier this month, alleging it was part of a shadow fleet carrying oil from countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions.
The United States said publicly that the Marinera’s crew could be prosecuted. Russia said that would be “categorically unacceptable” and accused Washington of stoking tensions and threatening international shipping.
“Two Russian sailors have been released and are on their way home to Russia,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday.
Russia announced earlier this month that the United States had decided to release the two Russian crew members, but last week its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the decision had not yet been implemented.
The captain and the first officer of the tanker have left UK waters, Solicitor General for Scotland, Ruth Charteris told a court hearing Tuesday, Press Association news agency reported.
“The captain and the first officer are now aboard the US Coast Guard vessel Munro and have departed the United Kingdom’s territorial sea,” Charteris said.
Twenty-six of the 28 crew have left the ship, officials told AFP. They were processed at a military site in Inverness, Scotland, the court was told, according to Press Association.
Five wanted to travel to the United States and 21 elsewhere. None have claimed asylum, the court heard.
“At the request of the US authorities, crew members have been allowed to disembark for onwards travel,” a UK government spokesperson told AFP Wednesday.
“They will be processed in line with all appropriate immigration and legal requirements.”
Britain was not involved in the movement of the other two crew members, the government said.
The United States seized the tanker, previously known as Bella 1, which was being escorted by the Russian navy, after chasing it from near the Venezuelan coast.
It was re-flagged and re-named to bring it under Russian jurisdiction in a bid to discourage the United States from trying to take it as part of its campaign against Venezuela.
