The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi stated that “People who arrive in Europe, through Libya, often come from the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.”
According to Ouest-France newspaper, Grandi added that these two areas are of great concern to him. “These are humanitarian crises, which have a strong dimension of forced displacement, conflict and the impact of climate change. It all adds up and it creates very complex crises.”
“This also shows that if we do not manage to resolve the root causes of these crises, we will always have more of this movement towards the rich countries. It’s inevitable,” he said.
The UN official explained that between five and six million Syrian refugees remain in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. “Since 2011, we have had moments with a lot of support, especially when the Syrians came to Europe, everyone woke up and helped out.”
“Today, we are struggling to mobilize resources. In a country like Lebanon, where it is very complicated to accommodate refugees for a thousand reasons, if humanitarian aid had to be cut, it would be a disaster. I told President Macron,” he said.
Grandi called “not to sacrifice humanitarian aid for austerity. The Sahel and the Horn of Africa are increasingly vulnerable, with a risk of destabilization in West Africa”.
He confirmed that migration flows resumed in the Balkans and towards Italy, and that the situation in the Sahel is very worrying. “We have a relatively stable country like Niger where it is possible to work. But we have two almost anarchic countries where humanitarian aid is dangerous and difficult, Burkina Faso and Mali. We have agreed with France to continue aid where it is possible to organize it.
Grandi stated that Mali and Burkina Faso are in full disintegration. “Burkina is a small country but where there are two million people displaced by armed groups. Humanitarian space is shrinking as needs multiply.”
“All of this is linked with ethnic tensions that lead to more conflicts. It is a negative spiral that is very marked in the Sahel. We talked about it a lot with President Macron. We really have in West Africa, a risk of regional destabilization which worries me a lot, and I do not yet see a real international strategy,” the UN official concluded.