YouSaid · the spoken record

Filippo Grandi

lines on the record: 35
first: 2020-06-18
most recent: 2020-06-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Resolving forced displacement is not just a moral or humanitarian imperative; it concerns areas that are at the heart of the Security Council’s mandate — areas that are critical for regional and international stability, and for the stability of the international economy; areas that are crucial to achieve justice in a world that yearns for reconciliation, and to ensure that truly no one is left behind.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“You know, Mr. President, that we humanitarians follow the Council’s debates very anxiously and very closely. We worry about the Council’s divisions. By the way, we are not naïve. From long experience, we understand very well the complexity of international politics. But we expect the Council, the world expects it, to show unity — at least where humanity is most wounded and trampled. We expect the Council, the world expects it, to send decisive, clear and unanimous messages to end conflicts and pursue avenues for peace.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Let me conclude with just a few further reflections on those major rising displacement trends I mentioned at the beginning. They reflect, really — I am sad to say, but I will be frank — divisions that are far beyond the theatre of the armed conflicts that cause this displacement. We see it every day in our field operations. We see the impact of regional and international rivalries. We see — apologies if I sound very direct here — we see the consequences of so much hypocrisy and indifference, which play out, unfortunately tragically, in the lives of those who are uprooted and traumatized. I say to Council members, please echo and follow up on the ceasefire call of the Secretary-General. I ask them to use their leadership and influence, the tools and resources they have at their disposal, to seek out and to expand space for solutions.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“We have encouraged the Myanmar Government to make progress on areas that are very important for refugees: freedom of movement; citizenship, at least a gradual process; and solutions for internally displaced people. So, my message to Council is that we are grateful for its focus. I would ask Council members to, please, continue to focus on these issues, and, please, help us make progress on these steps. They may seem like small steps, but it is only through small steps that we will move positively towards a solution. This is what refugees themselves are telling us, and I think it is very important — even in Myanmar, where contrary to the Sudan and South Sudan, the signals are less evident — not to give up, not to give in to a narrative of impossibility.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“The big issues remain, we should have no illusions: statelessness, access to rights by the Rohingya community in Myanmar. And now it is complicated by the growing conflict caused by the Arakan Army. But I believe, and I have also said it many times to the Council, we need to continue to work on concrete steps. We have made some very concrete proposals to the Government of Myanmar to move things forward. We have proposed intensifying contacts between the Myanmar authorities and the refugee communities. We have proposed linking the small development projects the United Nations is running in Rakhine state, with S/2020/560 growing space now, with the refugee community — to be more strategic and to create more options for solutions.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“We have managed, so far, to limit the pandemic in one of the most overcrowded and underresourced places in the world. This was really thanks to Bangladesh’s leadership, but it will continue to need support. What worries me is that, among the refugees, there is a growing sense that solutions are not coming — that solutions, especially in terms of returning to Myanmar, continue to be elusive. We see this despair, and are multiplying our mental health programmes, because people are really very desperate. We also see this translated into increasing departures on boats towards South-East Asia. This is extremely dangerous for people, and also a very complicated issue to deal with at the regional level, although we are working with States to do that. My point here is that we need to maintain the focus on solutions.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“It is vital that these investments continue, that we continue to involve the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in the quest for solutions to displacement in the two countries, and that we sustain the momentum, even if the foreseeable future is likely to present some very tough moments. The last practical, operational situation that I want to mention in relation to solutions — it may seem counterintuitive, but it is not — is Myanmar. Council members know this situation very well, and I have come before the Council many times to discuss this matter. There are still almost a million Rohingya in Bangladesh. Here, I want to commend Bangladesh, including for having led a very significant response to the pandemic.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“I was impressed by how the Government was striving to overcome the very damaging legacy that it had inherited. And, in spite of the very difficult economic and other challenges present in the country, I was struck by their commitment to the important discussions that we were having, and continue to have. In the humanitarian domain, these include issues of food security, for example, and also solving internal and external displacement — areas in which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is very much involved, and in which the United Nations is investing resources.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Between the two of them, these countries account for 10 per cent of the world’s refugees and internally displaced people. But we do have some opportunities there. It is encouraging that the Darfur peace discussions continue, for example, and that there is — although stop and start, as Council members know very well — some progress in the South Sudan peace process, including the announcements that we observed yesterday. But both processes are very fragile, and need support — indeed, bold support — in terms of, for example, how the international community will help the Sudan on its road to recovery, because setbacks are very possible. And there, as everywhere else, the pandemic is complicating the challenges. My last visit before the lockdown was to Khartoum, in March.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“We need also to continue to support the right of return of people who wish to go back to their country, but as for the Venezuelans, to ensure that these returns are driven not by despair or lack of choices, but are done as a deliberate, informed and sustainable choice. The last point that I want to mention, which is a consequence of the other two, is the need to not give up on solutions. Two-thirds of the refugees and people crossing S/2020/560 borders come from just five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. So, if we could make progress on solutions in just one of these five countries, this would automatically transform the lives of millions of people. Take the Sudan and South Sudan, two situations overlapping and intersecting for decades.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“And this is added, of course, to the general fragility of the country, with which Council members are familiar. The situation is also difficult in Jordan and in Turkey. In a few days, the fourth Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region — an aid conference chaired by the EU and the United Nations — will take place. It is an important opportunity to ensure that the progress we have made pending solutions is not reversed; to step up the support to host countries, which is much needed at this juncture; and to send a very strong signal from the international community.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“We really need the Security Council to work on an international posture that allows, finally, solutions to this conflict to emerge and creates space for communities to actually recover — something that we frequently tend to forget. In the meantime, I am also worried about the situation in the broader region. Around Syria, a number of countries have been very generous in hosting — and still do host — millions of refugees. They have helped save millions of lives. They have saved an entire generation of Syrian children. But now there is a deep economic downturn, caused by the lockdowns and by COVID-19, that risks creating poverty that will wipe out the gains achieved in the past few years. In Lebanon, 70 per cent of refugee households have lost access to livelihoods because of the nature of the work they were engaged in.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“So it is very important — and we will continue to do this — to work with the Government of Syria on concrete measures to remove those obstacles and build the confidence of people to return. But I want to be quite frank with the Council. The quest for solutions for those most impacted — in particular, the return of refugees and displaced people — continues to be difficult, because the political tensions in the region and international political tensions, with which Council members are very familiar, are very high. So, my strongest appeal today is, in fact, to please depoliticize humanitarian issues, including issues related to refugees and to their return, whenever possible.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“It is important to look at it more broadly, also from the perspective of Syrians themselves, including the 5.5 million refugees still living in neighbouring countries. What does their future look like? I am afraid that if we look at it through their prism, from their angle, it looks like a very crippling legacy of prolonged crisis — as is evident upon visiting Syria — now exacerbated by a very dire economic situation, made worse by the consequences of the pandemic lockdowns and other widespread destruction. Most refugees in the region continue to tell us that they want to return home. They also, of course, continue to speak about their concerns, which prevent some from making that decision: security, rights, access to education and work.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Armed conflict inside Syria has largely abated, although it is still present in a few locations and remains, as members know, especially acute in the north-west, in Idlib.At the beginning of the year, 1 million civilians were displaced in that area; 25 per cent of them, thanks also to the ceasefire that has held, have been able to return home. So, the figure is still very big, but it has decreased. And here I would like to make my first appeal to the Council members, to use all the influence they can muster to maintain the ceasefire and, of course, to continue to work towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis. But as Council members know, we tend always to look at Syria through the prism of these acute aspects of the crisis.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“It is important that those pledges are now realized. Humanitarian assistance is also key, by the way, for those that opt to return to Venezuela. It is also very important that international financial institutions and development partners play their role in support of host countries — hoping, of course, for a peaceful political solution of the Venezuela crisis that will allow these tensions to abate. I would also like to refer to Syria, a situation with which Council members are very familiar. We have already, during the pandemic, entered the tenth year of this crisis, in a country devastated by war — a war, however, whose geography and dynamics have evolved considerably.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Take the Venezuela situation, for example — one of the most dramatic of the last few years. More than 5 million people have left the country, 4.5 million of whom have moved elsewhere in the region, to 17 States in Latin America. Eighty per cent of those 4.5 million depend on the informal economy and, since the lockdowns in those countries, have entered a spiral of debt, destitution and, often, eviction. Tens of thousands of them — out of lack of stability, lack of means or of livelihood — are opting to return to Venezuela amid a very complicated situation, including from the health point of view. That is why I want to appeal for redoubled efforts to support countries hosting Venezuelans. A few days ago, the European Union (EU) and Spain chaired a pledging conference, which was quite successful.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Everybody understood that it was important to include them, because if anyone is excluded, the risk spreads to the entire population. Many refugees themselves contributed to this response, including in Europe and North America. It is much more difficult, in my analysis, to realize that inclusion in the responses that States are now putting in place to offset the social and economic impact of COVID-19. This is more complicated from both an economic and a political perspective, although, of course, refugees and displaced people are among those most impacted by COVID-19 in this respect, as they depend largely on informal economies that are gravely limited by lockdowns. In some countries, this situation is further exacerbated by an increase in stigmatization, scapegoating and even xenophobia with respect to refugees and vulnerable migrants.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“But we must remember that, despite that imbalance, international protection is a global responsibility, based on the fundamental principle of responsibility-sharing. The negative trends in terms of refugee protection in Europe, in North America and in the Asia and the Pacific region are placing the right to asylum, now additionally threatened by the pandemic, in further jeopardy. Meanwhile, in the very large host countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, the pressures are mounting. If one analyses the responses to the coronavirus pandemic in relation to refugee movements, there are interesting aspects. At the very beginning of the pandemic, we appealed to States to include refugees in their responses. In the health sector, this was done by most States.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“The Niger, for example, has kept its doors open to people fleeing north-western Nigeria, and many other States have put in place practical arrangements, such as quarantine, screening and documentation, for people seeking to cross borders during the pandemic. But let us remember, in the case of almost two S/2020/560 thirds of States, there have been no exceptions to the restrictions, even for asylum seekers. I would like to recall another important statistic in this respect. Despite all the political rhetoric, 85 per cent of refugees continue to be in developing countries — in poor or middle-income countries. Seventy-three per cent of refugees have taken refuge not far away, in a country next to their own.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“I will not mention all the crises, but let us remember Yemen, frequently discussed by the Council of course, and also new and growing ones, as in the north of Mozambique. They come with the usual features: a great deal of insecurity, attacks on aid workers, restrictions on movement and, from the perspective of the internally displaced, much narrower access to protection, aid and support. Meanwhile, of course, refugee flows also continue in a context where access to asylum is becoming more difficult. At the moment, 75 per cent of all States in the world have either fully or partially closed their borders. I would like to thank the Council members and other States that, despite that, have continued to admit asylum seekers and refugees.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Some days ago, my colleague and friend Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, spoke to the Council about how COVID-19 was also a protection crisis (see S/2020/402). I could not agree with him more. COVID-19 has stopped many things, but it does not seem to have stopped war. Despite the call of the Secretary-General for a global ceasefire, conflicts have continued to grow. Of the figure of 79.5 million people forcibly displaced, 46 million are internally displaced — refugees in their own countries. Internal displacement is a symptom of conflict, and since the pandemic started — since that call for a global ceasefire — there has been new internal displacement in 19 countries. In two months, we have seen an increase of 700,000 internally displaced people globally.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Departures by sea towards Europe, which had decreased, have unfortunately picked up again in the past few weeks. I can only repeat the appeals that I have made to Council members before. I urge the Security Council to capitalize on the Berlin peace process and aim for a permanent ceasefire at least, if not for peace. Meanwhile, let us redouble our efforts to prevent any retaliation and collective punishment against civilians, which are very dangerous. Let us continue to try to create space to mitigate abuses against refugees and migrants, to end arbitrary detention and, very important, to end impunity for the smugglers and traffickers of human beings. My second point is about protection.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“All those present are familiar with the military developments in the country over the past two to three weeks, which, by the way, have created additional internal displacement. Whether the new balance of power among the different parties will be more conducive to stability remains to be seen. I hope so. What I know is that we must continue to focus on the situation of Libyan civilians and of refugees and migrants. Detention has decreased, at least in the centres where we have access. We estimate that the number of migrants and refugees detained has gone from 5,000 to about 1,500. But for all of them, even those whom we have managed to extract from the centres, life continues to be very risky, made worse by the constraints imposed by the pandemic.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“We are also worried, of course, about the proximity in the north to the Libyan conflict.The coronavirus pandemic is also impacting the dynamic of population flows in the region. We saw a reduction of those flows in the initial phase of the pandemic, but they are growing again among countries in the region, and also towards the global north. The Council should have no illusion: borders may be more tightly closed now because of the responses to the coronavirus but this will not stop people from moving. Smugglers are very shrewd, and they will adapt to the circumstances and create new offers. The only difference will be that for people embarking on those journeys, travel will be even more dangerous. Libya continues to be the theatre of complex mixed flows, also impacted by the conflict there.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“There needs to be a more tailored, concerted effort to help States build, or rebuild, social cohesion among the different groups. I always say that the Sahel is the land of strategies. The problem is not a lack of strategies but too many of them, with too little coordination among their security, humanitarian, development and human rights aspects. I therefore wish to make a very strong call to action in that respect. Otherwise, I am worried that the crisis may spill over to neighbouring areas. Dealing with people on the move, we observe this first-hand. We are worried about the spillover into coastal States of West Africa, south of the Sahel. We are very worried about the proximity to the Lake Chad basin, where the crisis fuelled by Boko Haram action has worsened in recent days, and we have seen attacks in Nigeria as well.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Humanitarian organizations are trying to play their part to support States. We also have a very valuable dialogue with development actors, international financial institutions and the bilateral development agencies of countries of some Council members and very concrete interventions. Recently, a very interesting project was initiated by the African Development Bank to help respond to COVID-19 among displaced populations. But, frankly, we need a much more strategic application of development aid that tackles the root causes, besides security, and that takes into account the growing displacement element of the crisis. The security responses that have been the focus and are at the centre of the Council’s own discussions must also protect civilians and allow for humanitarian access.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“State authority has been progressively weakened, and trust in that authority on the part of the population has been eroded, on the one hand, as armed groups spread false information and substitute themselves for the State as service providers and, on the other, because these same groups attack civilians mercilessly, including in refugee camps, prompting security reactions that also impact civilians, such as through extrajudicial killings. All of this has become a very, very dangerous spiral. The Security Council visited the region in March last year. Since then, to provide just one indicator, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burkina Faso has increased by eight times. As we speak now, there are almost a million IDPs. The Niger and Mali are also very badly affected.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“More than 3,600 schools have either been destroyed or closed down because of violence, and now COVID-19 has placed the entire education system on lockdown. All of this has become fertile ground for the forced recruitment of young people by armed groups. In addition, livelihoods are being progressively decimated. Social cohesion among groups, as the President of Burkina Faso told me several times, has been impacted, even where it existed and was relatively strong before.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“This is one of the leading regions in terms of driving the displacement figures upwards, at least over the past couple of years, and, as the Council knows, it is the theatre of one of the most complex regional crises, the features of which are worsening. I met many representatives in February, on my last visit to New York, when I had just come back from a tour of Burkina Faso, the Niger and Mauritania, and the indicators have worsened since then. The impact of climate change has been very devastating to the region. The Council has heard from my colleague, David Beasley, of the World Food Programme, how food insecurity is growing and presents a risk to more than 5 million people in the subregion (see S/2020/340).”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“I could bring many things to the Council’s attention, but I will focus on three areas of concern, with a few concrete examples. First of all is the concern that the number of people displaced at the end of 2019, as we announced this morning, has been rising since 2012. The year 2011 was the last one in which this figure went down; since then, it has risen year after year. How can we stop that? This is the biggest and most difficult question, with the pandemic now becoming even more of a risk multiplier, interacting with the drivers of existing crises.Take, for example, the region that perhaps worries me most at the present time — the Sahel region in West Africa. Among Council members, of course, is the Niger — a country that is very much impacted by this crisis.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“But this figure that I have mentioned and the impact of COVID-19 in general are also worrying in other ways. They are symptoms of grave threats that are taking shape, because if the consequences of crises that impact the most marginal are neglected, they will come back and affect us all, as COVID-19 has demonstrated. We in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in the United Nations and in the humanitarian community will continue to do our part. The work that we have done with all Council members and other Member States to establish a global compact on refugees, and last year to organize the Global Refugee Forum, has been invaluable and especially evident in this time of crisis. But we continue to need the leadership and concerted action of the Security Council.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“Among those are the refugees and the displaced whose history is too often told only in numbers and statistics and who appear in newspapers and our social media feed only as pawns in political debates or, frankly, as part of grotesque international squabbles over who can push them back or push them away harder and further. And now for them, for those 79.5 million people, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) also has an impact, which I will refer to in the course of my presentation. For refugees and for displaced people, but often for host communities as well, COVID-19 has further exposed their vulnerabilities. It has weakened their ability to cope with difficult situations even more. Unfortunately, it has frequently stripped away the residual hope they had of a better future.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“All of this, as the Council knows very well, is accelerated by poor governance, by the climate emergency and by prevailing inequality and exclusion. These trends somehow show how, when leadership fails and when multilateralism — which the Council represents — does not live up to its promise, the consequences are not felt in the global capitals of our world or in the homes of the powerful and of the rich. They are felt in the peripheries of nations, in border communities, among the urban poor and in the lives of those who have no power.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source
“One per cent of humankind now lives in forced exile. In the past 10 years, the number of people forcibly displaced has doubled, to almost 80 million. We have reported this, as many Security Council members may know, in our yearly document, entitled Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019, issued in Geneva this morning. This opportunity to meet with the Council is therefore extremely timely, and I want to thank France, and all those present, for inviting me. These global trends represent, in a way, the human impact of a decade of crises with which Council members are very familiar — wars, violence in different forms, persecution and discrimination against people and groups and countries in which social breakdown prevails.”
2020-06-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/560 (2020) · source