GENEVA: The United Nations refugee agency on Friday declared the crisis in the Middle East a major humanitarian emergency, and insisted all fleeing civilians should be granted safe passage.
UNHCR said the Middle East crisis — which began on Saturday when Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran and has spread since — had already caused large numbers of people to flee their homes.
“UNHCR has declared the escalating crisis in the Middle East as a major humanitarian emergency requiring an immediate response across the region,” Ayaki Ito, the agency’s emergency chief and its cross-regional refugee coordinator, told a press briefing in Geneva.
“The recent escalation of hostility and attacks in the Middle East have triggered significant population movements — while clashes along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan have also forced many thousands of families to flee,” he said.
The affected regions already host nearly 25 million people as refugees, internally displaced people, or refugees who have recently returned from abroad, said Ito.
He said the UNHCR was trying to get life-saving assistance into affected countries across the region.
Ito said it was imperative that all civilians who need to move, or cross borders, “find safety and safe passage.”
Fresh strikes rocked Iran and Lebanon on Friday, as Israel vowed to escalate to a new phase in the Middle East war that has spiralled rapidly throughout the region and beyond.
UN rights chief called on Friday for cool heads to prevail in the Middle East and urged the warring sides to pull back and give peace a chance.
“The world urgently needs to see steps to contain and extinguish this blaze — but instead we are only seeing more inflammatory, bellicose rhetoric, more bombings, more destruction, killings and escalation, that fuels it further,” Volker Turk told reporters.
“I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate, to give peace a chance. And on other states to call clearly on those involved to pull back. Cool heads must prevail if we are to prevent further terror and devastation for civilians.”
