{"id":135940,"date":"2019-06-24T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=135940"},"modified":"2019-07-01T11:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T10:37:07","slug":"record-displacement-shows-were-almost-unable-to-make-peace-warns-un-refugee-agency-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/06\/record-displacement-shows-were-almost-unable-to-make-peace-warns-un-refugee-agency-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Displacement Shows \u2018We’re Almost Unable to Make Peace\u2019, Warns UN Refugee Agency Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

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19 Jun 2019 – A record 70.8 million people fled war, persecution and conflict in 2018, UN refugee agency chief\u00a0Filippo Grandi<\/a>\u00a0said today, appealing\u00a0for greater international solidarity to counter the fact that \u201cwe have become almost unable to make peace\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Unveiling\u00a0new data<\/a>\u00a0indicating that global displacement numbers are at \u201cthe highest level\u201d that\u00a0the UN refugee agency,\u00a0UNHCR<\/a>,\u00a0has seen in its almost 70-year existence, Mr. Grandi noted that these were \u201cconservative\u201d estimates.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Venezuela<\/a>, he added, only half a million of\u00a0the\u00a0four million\u00a0people\u00a0that had left that\u00a0country amid an ongoing economic and political crisis have formally applied for asylum and refugee status.<\/p>\n

Peru Restrictions Risks Creating \u2018Bottleneck\u2019 Upstream<\/h3>\n

Amid reports that regional neighbour Peru had tightened restrictions on Venezuelans trying to cross its border after struggling to cope with the migrant influx, Mr.\u00a0Grandi\u00a0noted that the risk was that other countries closer to Venezuela \u2013 such as Ecuador and Colombia \u2013 might follow suit, creating a \u201cbottleneck\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people who are escaping so it is difficult for them to get documents from their own country,\u201d Mr.\u00a0Grandi\u00a0said, adding that such papers were also difficult to obtain in Colombia and Ecuador.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ax5f9KsGfv8<\/p>\n

It was almost counter-intuitive to ask these Venezuelans who are \u201crefugee or refugee-like\u201d to present passports and visas, he insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeru is the second-largest recipient of Venezuelans after Colombia,\u00a0and they are really overwhelmed by the presence of all these people and they have my full sympathy for that,\u201d Mr.\u00a0Grandi\u00a0told journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have been urging them to be just like Colombia and Ecuador and Brazil to keep their borders open, because these people really are in need of safety, or protection,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

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Tens of millions of people have been forced to flee their homes. This is where they come from. pic.twitter.com\/2WNUbYGvd3<\/a><\/p>\n

— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) June 19, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n