UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has praised the role that partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in the modern world as "more crucial than ever," stressing the need to fight "toxic" political narratives around refugee issues, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th July, 2019) UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has praised the role that partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in the modern world as "more crucial than ever," stressing the need to fight "toxic" political narratives around refugee issues, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.Addressing the opening session of the UNHCR's Annual Consultations with Non-Governmental Organizations, Grandi urged NGOs across the world to unite to counter "toxic" discourses that "pose a danger not only to refugees but also 'the very foundations of our global society,'" according to the agency.
"We need to provide a moral and strategic response to these trends," Grandi said, adding that the NGO advocacy was "more crucial than ever in the current political climate."
UNHCR, meanwhile, noted that the two-thirds of its partner organizations were local and national NGOs.
During his speech, Grandi also suggested that people should realize that "solutions are possible," citing examples when refugees do become "contributors to the societies that host them."
Referring to the situation around undocumented migrants arriving in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, the UN refugee chief stressed that "rescue at sea is an absolute imperative, and to weaken rescue at sea, as Europe is doing, is absolutely unacceptable."
"Bringing politics into the humanitarian discourse in a manner that disparages, stigmatizes, marginalizes refugees ... is a very slippery slope," Grandi concluded.
Grandi's statement comes as the European Union has been in discord since last year amid attempts of NGOs' migrant rescue ships to enter its ports, with Rome, in particular, refusing to unconditionally take in all such migrants and slamming the activities of certain NGOs.
