GENEVA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – The head of the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday that the organisation was facing one of the most difficult moments in its history, with some 110 million people displaced around the world and a major funding shortfall.
“The task with which you have entrusted UNHCR is at one of its most difficult moments in our history,” Filippo Grandi told the organisation’s Executive Committee at a meeting in Geneva. “The world is increasingly divided, fragmented and inward-looking,” he said.
The organisation faces a $650 million funding shortfall this year and the outlook for 2024 is “even more worrying”, he added.
He added that the organisation was facing one of the most difficult moments in its more than 70-year history, with some 110 million people displaced around the world and a major funding shortfall.
Conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan have pushed displacements to record levels around the globe at a time when some governments, including once welcoming ones like Germany, face growing pressure to get tougher on asylum seekers.
In an address to the UNHCR’s governing body, Filippo Grandi urged countries to respect the rights of those fleeing conflict or persecution guaranteed under the 1951 Refugee Convention the body was created to oversee.
“I’m asking quite solemnly, that you focus at least on the areas on which we can agree and especially that people forced to flee their homes due to conflict or persecution, have rights as human beings and as refugees and displaced,” he told the Executive Committee.
“The task with which you have entrusted UNHCR is at one of its most difficult moments in our history,” he said. “The world is increasingly divided, fragmented and inward-looking.”
The organisation faces a $650 million funding shortfall this year and the outlook for 2024 is “even more worrying”, he added.
