Guterres to brief UN Security Council this week, expected focus on climate change
Briefing Notes, 22 November 2011
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 22 November 2011, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, will tomorrow address the UN Security Council in New York on the state of displacement globally, and its causes. According to UNHCR data there are 43.7 million people worldwide who have been forcibly displaced. This includes 15.4 million refugees, 27.5 million people displaced internally by conflict, and nearly 850,000 asylum-seekers; it does not include people who are stateless, and whose numbers are estimated at up to 12 million or more.
A focus of the High Commissioner's address is expected to be the relationship between climate change and displacement. Drought, famine, desertification, and mass population movement can all lead to insecurity and conflict. In addition, the impact of sea-level rises on low-lying states may become an issue that affects citizenship of people from such countries. The full text of the High Commissioner's statement will be posted at www.unhcr.org following the address and as soon as it becomes available to us for dissemination.
Advocacy is a key element in UNHCR activities to protect people of concern.
How UNHCR and partners seek to minimize the environmental impact of refugee operations.
António Guterres, who joined UNHCR on June 15, 2005, is the UN refugee agency's 10th High Commissioner.
Battling the Elements in Chad
More than 180,000 Sudanese refugees have fled violence in Sudan's Darfur region, crossing the border to the remote desert of eastern Chad.
It is one of the most inhospitable environments UNHCR has ever had to work in. Vast distances, extremely poor road conditions, scorching daytime temperatures, sandstorms, the scarcity of vegetation and firewood, and severe shortages of drinkable water have been major challenges since the beginning of the operation. Now, heavy seasonal rains are falling, cutting off the few usable roads, flooding areas where refugees had set up makeshift shelters, and delaying the delivery of relief supplies.
Despite the enormous environmental challenges, UNHCR has so far managed to establish nine camps and relocate the vast majority of the refugees who are willing to move from the volatile border.
Battling the Elements in Chad
Out of Harm's Way in Romania
Peaceful days and a safe environment is probably more than these Palestinian and Sudanese refugees expected when they were stuck in a desert camp in Iraq. Now they are recovering at a special transit centre in the Romanian city of Timisoara while their applications for resettlement in a third country are processed.
Most people forced to flee their homes are escaping from violence or persecution, but some find themselves still in danger after arriving at their destination. UNHCR uses the centre in Romania to bring such people out of harm's way until they can be resettled.
The Emergency Transit Centre (ETC) in Timisoara was opened in 2008. Another one will be formally opened in Humenné, Slovakia, within the coming weeks. The ETC provides shelter and respite for up to six months, during which time the evacuees can prepare for a new life overseas. They can attend language courses and cultural orientation classes.
Out of Harm's Way in Romania
UNHCR chief meets Malian refugees in Burkina Faso
On 1 August, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres travelled to northern Burkina Faso with the United States' Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (BRPM), Anne Richard. In Damba camp, they met with Malian refugees who had fled northern Mali in the past six months to escape the ongoing conflict and political instability. To date, more than 250,000 Malian refugees have fled their homes and found refuge in neighbouring countries, including 107,000 in Burkina Faso alone. The UN refugee agency has only received one-third of the US$153 million it needs to provide life-saving assistance such as shelter, water, sanitation, health services, nutrition and protection to the refugees. UNHCR fears that the volatile political and humanitarian situation in Mali could lead to further outflows to neighbouring countries.
UNHCR chief meets Malian refugees in Burkina Faso
Enough
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres and the heads of four key UN sister organizations call on governments to find a political solution to the Syria crisis.
DR Congo: Central African Republic Refugees
Fighting and a coup since late last year in Central African Republic have forced more than 30,000 people to seek refuge in DR Congo. UNHCR chief António Guterres visited some of them.
Lebanon: Guterres Visits Syrian Refugees
On the second anniversary of the Syrian conflict, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres highlights the challenges facing Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
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