‘Building Walls, Stopping Boats Doesn’t Work’, United Nations Official Tells Third Committee, Calling for Integrating Refugees in Host Communities
Amid “non-stop humanitarian emergencies” that have displaced 123 million people globally, States must include refugees in their societies instead of using illegal methods to prevent migration, a United Nations official told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.
“We all have a stake in peace,” said Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), highlighting how conflicts triggered crises that cannot be contained and isolated within national borders. The impact of refugee flows from conflict-torn Afghanistan is felt in Europe, South-East Asia and even Latin America. The war in Ukraine not only displaced millions of people to European countries but has also caused food insecurity in Africa and beyond.
Moreover, the humanitarian consequences of conflicts are overwhelming in Gaza and Lebanon “where the devastation is catastrophic” and a ceasefire is desperately needed. “People who fled a war now find themselves having to flee another,” he added, noting that just weeks after the start of the conflict in Lebanon, 470,000 people have crossed into a war-torn Syria. Similarly, “peace negotiations are not embraced seriously” in Sudan, where more than 11 million Sudanese people have been displaced since the start of the civil war in April 2023, escaping wanton violence, sexual atrocities, starvation, floods and disease.
“Left unresolved […] these conflicts will continue to spread uncontrollably,” he warned, underlining that Governments attempting to stop migrant and refugee flows through restrictive measures that “outsource, externalize or suspend asylum” are ineffective and can breach their international legal obligations. The UNHCR will help Member States develop legal paths for refugees and migrants, he said, stressing that “building walls and stopping boats does not work.” Such uncoordinated responses focusing on borders instead of migrant flows only fuel distrust, “pitting country against country”, he cautioned.
Calling for a more effective approach, he said that “the path to sustainability lies through greater inclusion of displaced people in the communities that host them.” Investing in health, education, and employment benefits both host communities and refugees, he emphasized. Among good practices in host countries, he spotlighted Kenya’s Shirika plan which will grant access to those services for refugees, allowing them to be self-reliant and included in national structures — rather than dependent on humanitarian aid.
In that vein, he voiced concern over increasingly unpredictable and earmarked humanitarian funding which prevents the flow of resources to those who need it most. Moreover, humanitarian action is becoming politicized, he observed, noting that his non-political agency will “stand side by side with refugees wherever they are […] and will not abandon them because we disagree with their leaders”. Calling on the international community to continue its support, he said: “The people we serve count on us, and we count on you.”
In the ensuing interactive dialogue, speakers highlighted the unequal burden developing countries bear in hosting refugees, calling for greater global support.
Expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, delegates from Egypt and Algeria both noted that developing countries disproportionately host refugees, with the latter stating, “the world, particularly Africa is facing a displacement crisis,” and the pressure put on host countries is becoming unsustainable. The international community must increase its support for host nations, she urged.
Speakers for Venezuela and Iran highlighted the negative impact that unilateral coercive measures have on refugees in host countries, whose access to services and aid may be hampered. In that same vein, Syria’s delegate noted that the measures create outflows of migration from targeted countries and prevent safe return to them.
For her part, Lebanon’s speaker said that the refugee crisis in her country has worsened since the start of the Israeli aggression against it. Some 168,000 Lebanese people have sought refuge in Syria, she noted, calling for “greater assistance for the people of Lebanon who have lost their security”.
The representative of Bangladesh said that her country continues to host the largest amount of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, calling on the High Commissioner to bolster support in Rakhine State to facilitate voluntary repatriation and resilience among those communities. The root causes of displacement must be addressed, she said, noting that the most durable solution for displaced persons is a safe and voluntary return to their place of origin.
The representative of Sudan spotlighted the violence in her country by militias, particularly in Al Jazirah, underscoring the importance of continually delivering humanitarian aid to the affected civilian population.
The representative of South Sudan highlighted her country’s “open door” policy welcoming for all those who seek refuge, including “Sudanese brothers and sisters”. She also underscored the importance of predictable support from development partners to help refugees rebuild their lives in her country, stressing that emergency efforts to meet immediate humanitarian need must be “balanced” with those in line with long-term stability.
Meanwhile, the representative of Poland highlighted its $10 million contribution to the UNHCR and condemned all attempts to instrumentalize migrants and refuges by orchestrating their movements across the Polish border — leading to rights violations.
The Committee also discussed ways to advance justice for Africans and people of African descent, who face various forms of racism and discrimination.
They are subjected to systemic racism by law enforcement and within criminal justice systems in many parts of the world, warned Akua Kuenyehia, Chair of the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement. In its continuous interactions with people and communities affected by police violence and misconduct, the Mechanism repeatedly hears about the difficulties they face in seeking justice, accountability and redress for violations by law enforcement officials. “Broad impunity persists, and victims’ rights to justice, truth, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition are rarely fulfilled,” she stated, urging States to establish strong institutions and effective reporting and investigation procedures, such as recording and reviewing all incidents. “Technology like body-worn cameras can really help in this regard,” she added.
It is also critical to allow affected communities and individuals to actively participate in investigations and examine the role of systemic racism in the incidents, she said. Furthermore, States must establish independent civilian oversight bodies for law enforcement. “Victims of racially motivated police misconduct are in a particularly vulnerable situation, since they often have to file a complaint at the same institution — and sometimes — with the same individuals who are the perpetrators,” she observed, calling for independent accountability mechanisms. For instance, victims’ rights for adequate reparation must be fulfilled through a mechanism specifically designed to support them, she added.
June Soomer, Chairperson of The Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, said “approaches that fail to consider the underlying obstacles to overcoming systemic racism and racial discrimination will largely prove ineffective, and ultimately lead to an inevitable destruction of our shared humanity.” Therefore, she called for launching a second International Decade for people of African descent to tackle systemic and structural racism within and among countries, pursue reparatory justice in all its dimensions and address emerging and urgent challenges, such as environmental and climate justice and the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.
The international community must comprehensively address the socioeconomic inequities faced by people of African descent in their countries, she urged, encouraging further steps to bridge the gaps between the global South and the global North, including by promoting equitable participation of such people in global governance.
Barbara G. Reynolds, Chair of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, said that over the past year, the body focused mainly on racial justice, rhetorical justice, environmental justice and digital justice. However, she regretted the Group’s inability to conduct certain technical visits due to financial constraints. “While progress has been made on recognition, justice and development, boosted and bolstered by the International Decade for people of African descent, much remains to be done,” she said, expressing concern about some Member States’ objection to include in the Declaration for the Rights of People of African Descent certain rights and the recognition that such people must be able to claim their human rights collectively and not just individually.
Stressing the imperative of “righting historical wrongs”, she looked forward to Member States moving “from talking to putting form and substance to reparatory justice”. She also warned that — whether everyday apps or complex algorithms — digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to mask, accelerate, intensify, broaden and deepen discrimination against people of African descent who routinely face institutional, structural and systemic racism. The Working Group made recommendations to address digital justice, she added.
Also briefing the Committee was Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination. She cited the illicit financing of mercenaries and mercenary-related actors as “a continuing threat to human rights and the stability of sovereign States worldwide”. She identified two financing methods: a “macro” level, whereby mercenary operations and private military or security activities are funded primarily by States or their proxies; and a “micro” level, whereby individual mercenaries are paid for their services. Both types can occur when the funds and payments are funnelled through traditional bank-to-bank transfers, remittances and cash payments or through alternative financial systems such as cryptocurrencies and crowd-funding initiatives.
“We are dealing with a complex web of highly covert activities with criminal elements that pose multiple threats to the human rights of local populations and beyond,” she cautioned, highlighting the link between mercenarism and the exploitation of natural resources, transnational organized crimes and other illicit activities. Underlining the dire need to understand the complex ways in which States, enablers and individual mercenaries utilize traditional and alternative financial ecosystems, she stated: “The financing of mercenarism does not exist in a vacuum.”
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