Photo: Grandi becomes UN High Commissioner for Refugees with a five-year term./ ACNUR
The Diplomat. Madrid.
The Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi took up his post as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this week, for a five-year term, at a time that he defined as “extremely difficult” with a record number of people being forced to flee war and persecution.
Grandi, 58 years of age, and with extensive experience working in the UN on refugee and political affairs in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, takes over from the Portuguese António Guterres, who headed the organisation for more than 10 years.
“UNHCR is navigating extraordinarily difficult waters, the cumulation of multiple conflicts and the consequent massive displacement, the new challenges in respect of asylum, the gap in existing finance between humanitarian necessities and available resources, and the growing xenophobia are generating a very dangerous combination”, the new chief said.
[hr style=”single”]
Refugee numbers rose to 59,5 million in June, according to UNHCR figures
[hr style=”single”]
“The road that lies ahead of us is full of challenges”, he added, at the same time as he said he was optimistic about the possibility of achieving progress, as a result of “coordinated work with governments and civil society”.
Similarly, Grandi underlined the need to approach the problems of those displaced from their countries of origin and called for adequate political and material resources to halt the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. He went on to say that “the UNHCR is ready to work with all those who pursue this objective”.
In June 2015, the UNHCR pointed out that the number of forcibly displaced people throughout the world reached 59,5 million, the highest number ever recorded since the Second World War. Numbers of displaced people have continued to rise since then, as can be seen from the more than one million refugees and immigrants who have crossed the Mediterranean heading to Europe during 2015.
