GENEVA: The head of the UN refugee agency suggested Monday that President Donald Trump\u2019s America has carried out deportation practices that violate international law, and criticized a wider \u201cbacklash\u201d in some countries against migrants and refugees.<\/p>\n
Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, used a speech to lament that drastic funding cuts and shortages have forced his agency, UNHCR, to slash nearly 5,000 jobs this year, or nearly a quarter of its workforce. The cuts may not be finished, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was certainly not an easy year for any of us,\u201d Grandi told the opening of UNHCR\u2019s executive committee. \u201cBut remember, please: There has never been an easy year to be a refugee \u2014 and there never will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did cite some bright spots and praised the Trump administration-led peace efforts in Congo, where conflict has displaced millions of people.<\/p>\n
At the UN General Assembly last month, the Trump administration \u2014 which has slashed support this year for international humanitarian aid \u2014 pitched other countries on its view that the global system of seeking asylum has been abused and needs to be revamped, in part by cracking down on migration.<\/p>\n
Other traditional donors have cut back their aid outlays for UNHCR this year.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the agency has received roughly $5 billion a year \u2014 or half its budgetary requirements \u2014 even as conflict and repression in places like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela and Ukraine have led the number of people fleeing their homes to roughly double over the last decade \u2014 to 122 million.<\/p>\n
In the politically charged environment of today, Grandi said, \u201cputting the (UN) Refugee Convention and the principle of asylum on the table would be a catastrophic error.\u201d He insisted that \u201cnational sovereignty and the right to seek asylum \u201dare not incompatible. They are complementary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grandi, whose term is up at the end of this year, decried an erosion of respect for international law in certain developed countries and noted that most refugees are taken in by poorer ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am worried that the current debate \u2013 in Europe, for example \u2013 and some current deportation practices \u2013 such as in the United States \u2013 address real challenges in manners not consistent with international law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has said it has an obligation to remove the \u201cworst of the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grandi also cited some optimistic developments: More than 1 million refugees from Syria have now returned home. A \u201cglimmer of hope\u201d has emerged in the eastern Congo conflict between Rwanda-backed forces and Congo\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to peace efforts spearheaded by the United States, instead of speaking only of more bloodshed, or more refugees, we can start to think \u2013 cautiously, but a little bit more optimistically \u2014 of stability and returns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA: The head of the UN refugee agency suggested Monday that President Donald Trump\u2019s America has carried out deportation practices that violate international law, and criticized a wider \u201cbacklash\u201d in some countries against migrants and refugees. Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, used a speech to lament that drastic funding cuts and shortages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-507219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n