UN refugee agency chief suggests that US deportation practices violate the law
Geneva – Geneva (AP) – The head of the United Nations refugee agency suggested on Monday that President Donald Trump’s America has led expulsion practices that violate international law and have criticized a broader “reaction” in certain countries against migrants and refugees.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, used a speech to deplore that drastic financing cuts and shortages have forced its agency, the UNHCR, to reduce nearly 5,000 jobs this year, almost a quarter of its workforce. Cups may not be over, he said.
“It was certainly not an easy year for any of us,” said Grande at the opening of the UNHCR Executive Committee. “But remember, please: there has never been an easy year to be a refugee – and there will never be.”
He cited some light points and praised the peace efforts led by the Trump administration in the Congo, where the conflict has moved millions of people.
At the United Nations General Assembly last month, the Trump administration – which has reduced support this year for international humanitarian aid – presented other countries in its opinion that the global asylum research system has been abused and must be reworked, in part by repressing migration.
Other traditional donors have reduced their assistance expenses to UNHCR this year.
In recent years, the agency has received around 5 billion dollars a year – or half of its budgetary requirements – even in conflict and repression in places like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela and Ukraine have led the number of people fleeing their homes to double in the last decade – to 122 million.
In the politically responsible environment of today, Grande said: “Put the (non -refugee convention) and the principle of asylum on the table would be a catastrophic error.” He insisted that “national sovereignty and the right to seek asylum” are not incompatible. They are complementary.
Granded, the term of which takes place at the end of this year, has decried an erosion of respect for international law in certain developed countries and noted that most refugees are discussed by poorest.
“I fear that the current debate – in Europe, for example – and that certain current deportation practices – as in the United States – do not retain real challenges that do not comply with international law,” he said.
Tommy Pigott, spokesperson for the American State Department, defended US immigration and migration policies and said that Trump’s speech at the United Nations was “a call for action against destructive policies promoting mass and illegal migration that globalist bureaucrats have pushed for years.”
“Our actions are in accordance with American law and the will of the American people, who require safe borders and a system of legitimate immigration,” said Pigott.
Grandi has also cited certain optimistic developments: more than a million refugees from Syria have now returned home. A “light of hope” appeared in the conflict of the eastern Congo between the forces supported by Rwanda and the armed forces of the Congo.
“Thanks to peace efforts, led by the United States, instead of speaking only more blood effusions, or more refugees, we can start thinking-cautiously, but a little more optimistic-of stability and returns,” he said.
