GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. refugee agency could have to make “severe cuts”, increasing the hardships of those that have been driven from their homes, unless it gets immediate extra funding, its chief said on Monday.
The war in Ukraine has propelled thousands and thousands of individuals to flee, and there at the moment are greater than 100 million people forcibly displaced on the planet, causing UNHCR’s budget to balloon to over $10 billion.
“I regret to tell you that for the primary time during my tenure, I’m frightened about UNHCR’s financial situation,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a speech to member states in Geneva after being re-appointed as head of the agency last month.
“If we don’t receive not less than a further $700 million, especially for our most under-funded operations, between now and the tip of this 12 months, we might be forced to make severe cuts with negative and sometimes dramatic consequences for refugees and host communities,” he added.
He also said he was frightened in regards to the impact of cold weather throughout the the northern hemisphere’s winter on some 6.2 million people internally displaced in Ukraine.
Political Cartoons on World Leaders
“I share the federal government’s concerns in regards to the looming winter,” he said, saying the elderly and disabled were especially vulnerable.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Nick Macfie)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.