NEW YORK (AP) - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih has said that mounting forced displacement poses a fundamental threat to international stability.
He urged the UN Security Council to prioritize political solutions over indefinite humanitarian assistance.
“This is not only a humanitarian challenge; it is fundamentally a challenge to international peace and security, and that is why this discussion belongs here,” Salih told a Security Council briefing on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly session, stressing that displacement is “rapidly” outpacing durable solutions across proliferating and protracted conflicts.
Salih said that more than 117 million people have fled violence, persecution and conflict, maintaining that managing displacement indefinitely cannot serve as the measure of collective ambition. Under the “50 by 35” vision launched earlier this year, UNHCR aims to halve by 2035 the number of long-term displaced refugees who remain dependent on
Addressing the crisis in Sudan, Salih affirmed that “humanitarian assistance can keep people alive” but cannot deliver the peace citizens need to rebuild, calling for a truce and “serious” dialogue. In the Sahel, he argued that security and humanitarian protection must reinforce each other rather than operate as competing goals.
Salih said the “real test” of a peace process is to see whether it leads people to return to their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and urged the Security Council to “help sustain that momentum.”
Salih termed the half-century displacement of Sahrawi refugees in Western Sahara “untenable, unsustainable and genuinely truly inhumane” amid deteriorating conditions and severe funding shortages.
Salih demanded the unconditional release of all UN and humanitarian staff arbitrarily detained by Houthi authorities in Yemen, where UNHCR declared an initial Level 1 emergency alongside Djibouti and Somalia to scale up cash assistance and shelter.