© AFP/File | UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi
BEIRUT: The UN’s refugee chief on Friday criticised a temporary US ban on resettlement of refugees, and urged countries to welcome those fleeing war, saying they were “not dangerous”.
“These are people that flee from danger, they’re not dangerous themselves,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
“They should be embraced, they should be received with solidarity and generosity, not identified as carriers of risk, of threat, they’re not.”
Grandi was speaking in Lebanon, which hosts about one million Syrian refugees, as well as 450,000 registered Palestinian refugees.
He warned that an order signed by US President Donald Trump, suspending all refugee arrivals for 120 days, with Syrian refugees barred indefinitely, could have “dangerous” knock-on effects.
“This is a very dangerous weakening of the international solidarity for refugees,” he said, speaking after a trip to Syria.
“We need the rich countries… to support the countries like Lebanon, like Kenya, like Pakistan, countries with less resources that host millions of refugees,” Grandi said.
“Otherwise they will start saying ‘why should we do it?'”
“I hope that once they conduct their internal review they will resume this important programme,” he added.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR estimates that some 20,000 people worldwide will be affected by the US order during the 120-day window.
Grandi said the UN was trying to advocate with the Trump administration, but its engagement was only at the “technical level” so far while the new president fills out his government and bureaucracy.
He said the UN also took “exception” to any bid to discriminate on the basis of religion or ethnicity, an apparent reference to the suggestion Washington might give preference to religious minorities when it resumes receiving refugees.
“All people that are vulnerable, irrespective of their ethnic or religious affiliation should be given a chance to benefit from this programme,” he said.
Grandi pushed back against suggestions that “safe zones” created in Syria could be a solution to the refugee crisis.
Nearly five million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
Several countries have raised the prospect of creating safe zones to stem the flow, but Grandi said the conditions for such a solution to work did not exist in Syria.
“Let’s not waste time in planning safe zones that will not be set up because they will not be safe enough for people to go back,” he said.
“Let’s concentrate on making peace so that everywhere in Syria becomes safe.”
More than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and successive rounds of peace talks have failed to produce a political resolution. – AFP